Ghana’s Azamati, Joe Paul pull out of major events

• Joe Paul has pulled out of the 100-metre races to focus on the 200-metre race

• Azamati will also not participate in the 200-metre race

• Their coach has explained that it is due to the schedule of the events

Ghanaian sprint sensation Benjamin Azamati will not compete in the 200 metres event at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Whiles Azamati has opted out of the 200-metres race, his teammate Joe Paul has also pulled out of the 100-metre race.

This, he says is to enable him focus on his area of specialty which is the 200-metre race and also reserve energy for the 4by100-metre race.

This, he says is to enable him focus on his area of specialty which is the 100m race and the relays.

Making the disclosure at a press conference on Tuesday July, 6, 2021, the head coach of Ghana’s athletics team, Andre Owusu said they considered a number of issues in arriving at the decision.

He is confident the that the decision will serve the athletes well and help them prepare for the other events.

“The decision we took for Azamati and Joe Paul to run one individual race each was influenced by the scheduling at the Tokyo Olympics. If they were to compete in the two events and qualify for the finals, which is likely looking at their times, they would have run about 8 races in the space of just 6 days coming into the start of the relays and that certainly would have meant they would be completely burnt out.

“So in order to preserve them and keep them fresh for the relays, we decided the best thing to do is have them run in one race each,” he said.

The Tokyo Olympics take place from July 23 to August 8, 2021. Team Ghana has pitched camp in Baltimore in the United States of America ahead of the games.