Azamati, who holds the national 100m record after clocking 9.90 seconds in March this year at a meet in Texas, believes it was time to deliver a medal for Ghana at the global level and the Commonwealth Games is a platform he will push himself for such an accomplishment.

The 24-year-old is currently Ghana’s poster boy for track and field events, enjoying a blistering career since enrolling in West Texas A& M University from the University of Ghana two years ago. He went into the recent World Athletics Championships in Oregon as the ninth fastest athlete in the world over 100 metres, having won the Paris Diamond League event last month.

Azamati, who will run in the men’s 100m and 4x100m, told the Graphic Online in Birmingham, England, that he had laboured for all these years just to make his nation proud and was ready to produce that at the games.

“It is not going to be easy for anybody to win a medal just like any other competition in the world, but I am ready to shoulder the expectations of Ghanaians.

“I believe it is time to make our years of hard work pay and I can’t wait to achieve that,” he said.

Azamati failed to qualify to the semi-finals of the just-ended World Athletics Championship where he finished with 10.03 seconds in the heats at the World Championships in Oregon, but later put up an impressive performance with the sprints quartet which finished fifth in the men’s 4x100 metres relay to set a new national record of 38.07 seconds last Sunday.

As Ghana's poster boy of athletics, Benjamin Azamati knows that Ghanaians expect him to win laurels in Birmingham

Despite the disappointment of failing to make it past the heats of the 100 metres, Azamati described the experience as a great learning curve to his career.

“I have been working hard all these years to become a champion but unfortunately I’m yet to achieve a personal record.

“The experience has been very good to my career and I’m ready to put all that I’ve learned together and deliver a medal for Ghanaians.”

Azamati is not new to performing on the big stage and winning laurels for Ghana. Three years ago, he was part of Ghana’s sprints quartet which won a gold medal in the 4x100m relay at the 2019 African Games in Rabat, Morocco.

He has since competed in the World Relays and the Olympic Games in Tokyo last year.