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Ghana’s women’s relay team has been forced to forfeit participating at the 2017 IAAF World Relays scheduled to begin in Bahamas this Saturday.
 
Team Ghana, currently ranked 11th in the world could have used the event to secure qualification to the IAAF World Athletics Championship in London later in August by placing within the top 8.

“It’s an issue of money. Our women’s team qualified but we had to pull out because we didn’t have the funding.

“We couldn’t guarantee some of our college athletes’ coaches that they were going because we didn’t have money and some of them were unwilling to release their athletes unless they knew for sure that the athletes are going to run,” President of the Ghana Athletics Association, Prof. Francis Dodoo told Starrsportsgh.com.

Speaking further, Prof. Dodoo explained this was caused by the delay in the availability of allocated funds meant for his outfit from government.

“We sent a budget to the Sports Authority and what we heard from there was that the budgetary releases hadn’t been done… I thought that without about $20,000, it would have been enough to get our coach and athletes there,” he said.

IAAF World Relays Bahamas 2017

The event’s third edition will take place 22-23 April at The Thomas A Robinson National Stadium in the Bahamian capital Nassau.

The 2017 programme includes heats and finals for the 4x100m, 4x200m, 4x400m, and the 4x800m for both men and women. Competitors will also contest a mixed gender 4x400m event.

The top eight finishers in the 4x100m and 4x400m earn automatic entry to the IAAF World Championships London 2017 set for 4-13 August.

Countries also compete for the Golden Baton which is awarded to the team with the most points based on position in the finals. The United States is the Golden Baton winner from 2014 and 2015.

Local organisers expect around 30,000 spectators to pack the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium over the two-day event. The stadium has a seating capacity of 15,000.