Isaac Nii Odartey Lamptey, long time coach and mentor of Ghanaian Youth Olympic Gold Medalist Martha Bissah has warned that the inability of the 18 year old to participate in the ongoing Athletics African Junior Championships in Ethiopia will have consequences on the development of her career.
[contextly_sidebar id=”RGIDgTgk6Bx6QXpZwthl8Jk2tQWHu6hL”]“She is the only Olympic Gold Medalist we have had at any level in this country in the history. I was expecting that any competition that will go on within her level will have to see her taking part,” he said.
“It will offer her the opportunity to test her strength to see if she is still capable. Most of her colleagues that she competed against in China will all be at the competition so Martha as the Gold medalist should be there. If this situation where competitions come around and she as our Olympic medalist is continuously unable to participate then it will affect her career one day because a time will come when she will not be able to compete with them,” he added.
“Last year she was able to rub shoulders with them and this year competitions have started and if she is not around then i don’t know what will happen to here in the near future,” he told Citi Sports on March 6 2015.
Martha Bissah has been in the news recently after being mentioned by President John Mahama in his State of the nations address.
“In athletics,consistent planning and the personal development of our (the nations) athletes ,earned Ghana our first Gold medal at any level.
The 18 year old Martha Bissah from Kumasi who won Gold at the Youth Olympics for special mention.”he told the gathering at Parliament on Thursday.
Martha will be afforded the opportunity to join the other young athletes on scholarship in US Colleges where she can develop her talent.” he said.
Bissah and her new manager Mickey Osei Berko have both in interviews with Citi Sports denied being contacted by the state on the proposed scholarship.
She however admitted turning down an earlier scholarship from the Ghana Athletics Association soon after her arrival from the Games in Nanjing stating that the invitation came at short notice.
By:Benjamin Nketsia/citifmonline.com/Ghana