The respected world athletics body the IAAF has apologized to the Ghanaian walkers who took part in last October’ World Walking Cup in Torino, Italy.
In a letter dated December 5, 2002 to that effect from the office of Anna Riccardi the FIDAL head of the International Department and copied to Sandro Giovannelli of the IAAF and the VISCO Walking Club of Ghana, Ms. Riccardi gave a breakdown of the issues at stake but concluded that despite the anomaly, the final team scoring was going to stand.
The letter informed that the Judges Regional Committee of the IAAF has checked the lap scoring, and can now confirm that the finishing times of the Ghanaian athletes were not correct.
The athletes in question are Stanley Briamah, Ahmed Tijani Sanni, Mudah Musah and Vincent Asumang.
When the Ghana Athletics Association was contacted, it stated that the body had not received a copy of the said letter of apology and were still waiting to receive its copy.
However team leader Asumang who was victimized confirmed that he had seen a copy of the letter which goes as far as to vindicate the entire team, even though the letter is far from the truth.
Asumang referred to the second paragraph which stated that the timing system was set to zero before the end of the men’s race which therefore means that the timing system was not in a good functioning state.
He also cited the third paragraph of the same letter which had it that the organizers had modified the individual final scoring, and wondered what the whole clumsy explanation meant.
The ace walker complained that the wrong impression given by the organizers has really affected sponsorship deals that had been lined up by certain corporate bodies, as well as affected the morale of walkers in the country in general.
“I think the IAAF can do better than just a letter of apology”, Asumang concluded.
