Yawa collapses at The Challenge finals

Gladys Yawa Afenyo, a finalist of ‘The Challenge’, an educational reality show, collapsed during her presentation at the grand finals of the event and therefore had to quit the show that she was highly tipped to win.

Gladys, a 27-year-old Cashier at The Royal Bank Ghana, was soaring to victory at the finals when suddenly she started to fumble and stammer during her presentation and eventually went down.

She was taken off stage but soon resuscitated and returned to the auditorium but only as a member of the audience.

Her blackout was attributed to tension and stage fright.

A fully sponsored postgraduate scholarship from the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland, the University of Salford in Manchester and the University of Northumbria was at stake for the three top winners of the competition. Tension has been high right from the start of the competition through to the grand finale.

The board members for the evening, Madam Joyce Aryee, Albert Ocran and representatives from the participating universities, had all taken their seats and soon enough it was show time.

Persuading the board members was the first task and that went smoothly.

However, things took a dramatic turn during the second task. For the second task, the challengers had the rare opportunity to advise the President. They were asked to arrange issues of corruption, education, power generation, economic management and health in order of importance. They were to make submissions as though they were advising the President on which issues he needed to tackle first.

When Yawa took the stage to make her submission, the audience expected her to dazzle them with her soft spoken voice as usual. Indeed she began her submission beautifully until the unexpected happened.

She began missing her lines and most audience kept cheering her on because it was assumed that the tension had gotten to her. But before the applause could cease, Yawa lost her balance and collapsed on the Challenge stage. The audience were left in shock as Yawa’s beautiful run, having won the treasure hunt task among others, came to a sad end.

She returned to the show but as a member of the audience. It is not clear what may have caused her blackout but until the unfortunate incident, she was one of the top contenders as per the cheers she received from the audience each time her name was mentioned.

That unfortunate incident notwithstanding, the show went on. At the end of the event, Sena, Mary and Yaw were evicted. This meant that the top three winners were Agya Yaw, who heads to Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland, Maame, who heads to the University of Salford in Manchester and Anthony Annan who heads to the University of Northumbria in Newcastle.

This season’s Challenge has definitely lived up to the hype and promises made by the producers. This only leaves viewers wondering what to expect in season 7.

The Challenge season 6 is a British Council initiative produced by GHOne TV with support from the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, University of Northumbria in Newcastle, University of Salford in Manchester, Vitamilk, the Universal Merchant Bank and proudly sponsored by Tigo.