Mr. Charles Abeiku-Forson (C.E.O of Daakye Runners Club) questions the organizers of Koforidua Marathon.
William Amposah the Ghanaian athlete who is currently the best long distance runner in West Africa and his technical team has thrown a big question to the organizers of the Koforidua Marathon. The question is, who spearheaded the technical direction of the marathon? _Is the person a professional in athletics or it’s just an ordinary person who lead the event?_
Last Saturday , 21st November, William Amposah and many others participated in the maiden edition of Koforidua Marathon which was supposed to be 42.2 kilometres or 26.2 miles from start to finish. The event started very competitive and William Amposah was taking the lead hoping to finish the 42.2 kilometres or the 26.2 miles as the overall winner. According to the organizers the route was a single loop with a distance of 21 kilometers or 13.1 miles so all the athletes supposed to go round twice to get the actual marathon distance of 42.2 kilometers or 26.2 miles. William who has always been running with his GPS watch on after he completed the first loop saw that he had ran 32 kilometers instead of 21 kilometers. Before William was supposed to use 70 minutes for the first 21 kilometers so Amponsah’s manager confronted the organizers and asked that them if they sure the police motor rider knows the route very well. Because according to the time which is now almost 01:50 minutes and William Amponsah is not coming, there is a problem somewhere. This brought a brawl between the race organizers and some of the coaches/mangers over there. Later the race organizers took a decision that they are calling all their volunteers along the way when William Amponsah reaches the 42.2 kilometer or 26.2 mile mark the volunteers should stop him and there will be the new finishing point. Although the time they took the decision William Amponsah had already clocked almost 47.49km on his watch, of which when he decided to continue he supposed to run another 16 kilometers again before he can reach the finishing point. Which was abnormal and as National and International Athlete for safety reasons and to avoid any injuries he has to stop. At this point many of the runners have been fallen off whiles other picked injuries.
William and his technical team who did not understand what was going on decided to pick a car to check the distance to the finishing point where they finally measured 64 kilometres or 39.5 miles.
In the sport discipline, what the organizers did at the Koforidua Marathon is not allowed and can land them in a law suit by the Ghana Sports Authority or any of the participants.
After the event ended , William Amposah who technically finished the 42 kilometres or 26.2 miles before any of the participants was not awarded as the winner by the organizers. This issues has brought many sports journalist to ask what happened . The management of William Amposah lead by Mr Charles Abeiku-Forson (Manager) and Mr Robbin Todd (Coach -UK) has released the details of the distance their athlete covered including the time. The CEO of Daakye Runners Club and the manager to Amposah raised the big question, “who directed the event?”
