NASSAU, Bahamas – Sophomore at West Texas A&M Isaac Bozio and graduate Benjamin Azamati qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics in the men’s 4×100 relay on Sunday night at the World Athletics Relays Bahamas. They will represent their home country Ghana in the relay.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN
Botsio and Azamati traveled to Nassau, Bahamas for the World Athletics Relays Bahamas from May 4-5 to compete with their two teammates, Ibrahim Fuseini (Texas A&M Commerce) and Joseph Amoah. The coach of Ghana is Elorm Amenakpor who is also a volunteer assistant coach for sprints at West Texas A&M University.
Botsio ran the second leg with Azamati running the third leg of the 4×100. Ghana lost their bid for Paris on Saturday night in the first race after being disqualified from the relay, thus missing out on the finals of the World Athletics Relays, which were contested on Sunday night, but all countries that failed to qualify on Saturday, had a second chance on Sunday night.
Ghana finished first in the second race on Sunday night in a highly competitive field and one where they needed a top-2 finish to qualify. Team Ghana clocked a time of 38.29 seconds to punch their ticket to the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are scheduled for July 24-August 11. Track and field events begin on August 1st and the first round of the men’s 4x100m relay is scheduled for Thursday, August 8th.
This will be Azamati’s second time qualifying for the Olympics with his first being at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 100m. Azamati ran for two years for the West Texas A&M Buffs and then signed a professional contract with Asics. Since then, Azamati completed his degree at WT and graduated in December 2023 while continuing to run professionally. Botsio, just a sophomore at WT, continues to run for the No. 1 Buffs and will compete in the NCAA Division II National Championships later this month in Emporia, Kansas from May 23-25.
Bocio continues to maintain his status as the fastest 100m runner this season, all-purpose, with his 9.90 set at the Jo Meaker Classic with Azamati in 30th place.u this season with a time of 10.03 from the Corky/Crofoot Shootout meeting.