A former Ghana track star and athletics coach, Dr Christian Nsiah, is calling for early camping for Ghanaian athletes ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games which comes off in July, insisting that is the only way to ensure that Ghana puts her best foot forward at sports’ premier global gathering.

Ghana will present a small track and field team comprising male sprinters and a female jumper at the Olympics, but Dr Nsiah believes that the state must invest in at least three weeks of camping to ensure the athletes are well prepared to make an impact in Tokyo.

As a two-time Olympian and the man who coached the male sprints relay team to qualify for the men’s 4x100 metres event at the 2021 summer Olympics, Dr Nsiah is under no illusion that getting the team together for about a month to compete in some trial competitions are the surest way to get the best out of them in Tokyo.

“I talked to the Ghana Athletics Association when I debriefed them about what happened in Silesia [World Athletics Relays] and in that conversation we talked about that [pre-Olympic competitions]. The issue is finding the meets for them, but no matter what, they must come together in order to train together, especially on the relays.

“Granted that each one of the athletes has his own coach, at a certain level we need to bring them together at least for three weeks or something to get them ready on the relay level, and when they are there they can also be doing their individual practice for their individual races,” Dr Nsiah, who coached the men’s relay team in Silesia, told the Graphic Sports in an exclusive interview from his US base.

Ghana's coach wants male sprints relay team to camp for at least three weeks

Ghana’s relay team of Sean Safo-Antwi, Benjamin Azamati, Joseph Manu and Joseph Paul Amoah, as well as home-based reserve athlete Edwin Gadayi live in different locations in the UK, USA and Ghana, while female triple jumper, Nadia Eke, also lives in a different state in the US. And unlike Safo-Antwi and Nadia, the rest are currently in school, competing in the American collegiate outdoor season.

For Dr Nsiah – who as an athlete won men’s 4x100m gold at the 2002 All Africa Games in Abuja and later coached Ghana to reclaim gold in the same event at the 2019 African Games in Rabat – Ghana’s campaign at the Olympics would be meaningless if not backed by adequate preparation. And his biggest worry has been with the timing of state-sponsored pre-competition camping, which often came in too late to make any meaningful impact.

“In this particular instance, it is important that the Ghana Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, National Sports Authority, corporate bodies and everybody to chip in to get the team prepared.

“The worst thing that Ghana tends to do is to take people to competitions unprepared, and when you get there that's when they give you preparation money. In my opinion the money is good, but at that point it is useless. We need to invest in the sport now, put them somewhere, accommodate them, feed them, train them, give them money to live, and then we can say we are ready. That's the only thing we can do to help them.”

Competing in the American collegiate outdoor season has kept athletes such as Azamati [West Texas A&M University], Manu and Amoah [both of Coppin State University] busy, while the likes of long jumper Deborah Acquah [Texas A&M University] and female sprinter Josephine Ankoye [Arizona State University] are in good form and stand the chance of meeting the Olympic qualifying standard ahead of the games.

However, the July 23 – August 8 Tokyo games begins one month after, when the US collegiate season ends, during which time the athletics coach hopes the Ghanaian authorities would have put in place a programme that would keep the athletes together and busy.

“Their school season ends somewhere in June, and that will be almost one month between that time and the Olympics. That is the point where Ghana needs to step in for the most part and help to put these guys in camp. The issue now, as you mentioned, I'll love for them to run in some competitions as a relay team... at least two before the Olympics.”

Although a sprints coach, Dr Nsiah hopes that triple jumper Nadia will come good at Tokyo even though she has not been very active this season.

At 28, the coach is counting on 2016 African champion to draw on her rich experience at her maiden Olympic Games appearance, having previously represented Ghana at the 2014 and 2016 African Championships, 2015 and 2019 African Games and the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

“She's experienced and knows what it takes to be successful at that level and will do everything possible to get to that level. She'll be one of the people I'll want to be in camp, but I know she has her own coach, and if we don't have a jump coach in camp them it makes sense for her to stay with her personal coach until it's close to the Olympics for her to come over,” Dr Nsiah said of the Columbia University graduate.