Story By Henrietta Afful
Ghanaian Olympian and Sprinter, Benjamin Azamati is in Ghana to participate in the Maiden Junior Olympics to motivate kids to develop interest in athletics and other sporting activities.
“Some of the kids have heard of me, that Ghana has a guy who presented them at the Olympics and now they get the chance to see him, maybe ask questions, how the journey has been and then I get to explain things to them.” Benjamin Azamati said.
Speaking on the Breakfast Show on GTV, Benjamin Azamati said he is in Ghana not only to motivate the kids but also to participate in the Junior Olympic games.
This, according to the Olympian, will give the kids that real athlete experience.
Sharing some of his winning tips, the student-athlete said mental imaging has been his strategy. With mental imaging, the athlete focuses on getting into top speed and winning the race, he added.
He said this helps him to forget about the pressure and nervousness during the race.
He encouraged the youth to demystify the saying that sports men are blockheaded noting that combining academics with sports paved the way for him.
Background
Benjamin Azamati made history by breaking a 22-year national record held by Leo Myles Mills on 26th March, 2021 in Texas by clocking 9.97 seconds to qualify him for the Tokyo Summer Olympics.
He went on to perform impressively at the Tokyo Olympic Games, where he placed fourth in Heat 7 of the men’s 100m event with a time of 10.13.
He currently is in Pre-med studying animal science in the United States of America and hopes to be a Veterinarian in future.
His dream for the next five years is to be a professional athlete compete with top notch athletes in games like the Diamond Leagues.
Maiden Junior Olympics
A Senior Sports Coach at the University of Ghana and a representative of Creative Athletics Club, Organisers of the programme, Elorm Amenakpor said the aim of the event is to unearth talents at a younger age, help develop their skills and prepare them for national and international sporting events.
Mr Amenakpor indicated that Children are usually left out in sporting events in Ghana only to be identified at the high school level after going through so much struggle.
This situation he said, does not promote sports development in Ghana hence stressed on the need to ‘catch athletes young’.
He said with little investment in their training, the country benefits so much from young athletes who are able to reach national and international competitions.
“We at Creative Athletics Club want to get the Athletes young, let them fall in love with the sports through playing in a healthy way taking into consideration their growth and their development and the application of all the scientific principles of coaching” Elorm Amenakpor said.
The young couch said this is the reason for instituting the Junior Olympics.
The Maiden Junior Olympics comes off at the Paa Joe Stadium, KNUST in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region on Friday, December 17, 2021 and ends on Saturday December 18, 2021. It is opened to all interested persons.
Competition
The kids will compete in different age categories that is from Under 10, Under 13, Under 17 to Under 20.
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