Deborah Acquah, a Ghanaian high jumper and national record holder, has criticized the country’s neglect despite missing out on a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2022 due to injury.
Acquah attributed her inability to qualify for the finals of the women’s long jump to an injury she has carried for more than one year.
The 27-year-old picked up an injury in July last year, during the World Championships in Oregon, USA, a week before the start of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
She revealed she initially wanted to pull out of the competition to focus on recovery, but some Ghanaian officials convinced her to compete, with assurances that they would support her to undergo surgery after the championships.
Desperate for help, she agreed, and produced her best performance yet, a new national record jump of 6.94s to secure a bronze medal, one of Ghana’s five medals at the competition.
“I honestly didn’t want to come to Budapest because for the past one year, I have been battling an injury. But my coach asked me to come and just get the season over it. So my performance was actually very good, if you understand the circumstances,” she said as quoted by Joy Sports.
“After the last worlds, I didn’t want to go to Birmingham, but then, the Ghana officials, and I don’t want to mention names because they know themselves, promised to take care of me if I went to Birmingham to compete, so I went.
“Initially, they said they would get a doctor to take care of me in Ghana once we returned. But when we got back, I didn’t hear anything from them.
“They then said I should go back to the US and they would find money for me to see a specialist here. That money didn’t come either.
“So the past one year has been a real challenge. I had to take care of myself through that injury, and because I’m done with school now, I also had to pick up a job to support myself. Because of all that, I have not been able to train and I have only competed once, since Birmingham,”
Acquah leapt 6.50m on the opening day of the ongoing World Athletics Championships, missing out on a place in the final.
