Azamati, Joe Paul lead Ghana’s 8-member squad to World Athletics Championships
Ghana will be represented by an eight-member team at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, with sprinters Benjamin Azamati and Joseph Paul Amoah headlining the squad. The competition begins on September 13 and runs until September 21.
Azamati, 28, will feature in the men’s 100 metres as well as the 4x100 metres relay, while Amoah, popularly known as Joe Paul, will line up only in the relay. The duo will be making their seventh consecutive appearance on the global stage, having represented Ghana at the World Championships in Doha 2019, Eugene 2022 and Budapest 2023, the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham 2022.
National 100 metres record holder Abdul-Rasheed Saminu is expected to be Ghana’s main medal prospect. The 22-year-old, who will make his World Championships debut, has the seventh fastest time in the world this year with a blistering 9.84 seconds, set in July. He will compete in both the 100 metres and the relay.
Ibrahim Fuseini will also make his debut, contesting the 200 metres in addition to joining the relay squad. Barnabas Aggerh has been named as a relay runner, while Mustapha Alufa Bokpin completes the men’s sprint pool.
The team is further bolstered by 33-year-old Alex Amankwah, Ghana’s 800 metres record holder, who returns to the World Championships eight years after his first appearance in London 2017. In the field events, high jumper Rose Amoanimaa Yeboah, a two-time NCAA medallist and national record holder, is Ghana’s only female representative.
The Championships will see Saminu, Azamati and their teammates face some of the world’s best sprinters, including Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson and Oblique Seville, and Americans Noah Lyles and Kenny Bednarek.
Ghana has not won a medal at the World Championships since 2005, when Ignatius Gaisah claimed silver in the men’s long jump and Margaret Simpson secured bronze in the women’s heptathlon. Athletics fans will therefore be looking to the youthful blend of debutants and experienced campaigners to end the country’s two-decade medal drought.
