Ghana’s first-ever medal in swimming at the 2023 All African Games, was secured by non-other but the team captain himself; Abeiku Jackson.
With Ghana’s hopes of a medal in swimming resting on his young shoulders, Jackson persevered to grab a silver medal in the Men’s 50m Butterfly event, finishing with a time of 24.23 seconds.
Egypt’s Ali Khalafalla narrowly outpaced him to clinch the gold medal in a time of 24.93 seconds.
The remarkable achievement cements the 23-year-old name in the country’s sporting history as the first athlete to win a swimming medal at the African Games. Effectively putting to an end the country’s barren run in the event.
In the same event, Jackson’s teammate, Stacey Harry finished with a time of 24.56 seconds despite mounting a strong challenge. She finished in fifth place unfortunately.
Still on Swimming, the Ghanaian contingent finished in fifth place in the 4x100m Medley Relay Mixed, recording a time of 4:03.39.
Earlier in the day, Titus Ankrah Hector missed the final of the Men’s 100m Breaststroke despite leading in Heat 1 with a time of 1:18.69.
Teammates Christian Nii Nortey Duah, Asampong Theodore, Nubia Adjei, Snowden Ivan and Mensah Joselle failed in their events despite their best efforts.
Ghana is looking to improve her standing on the medal table in the face of a rather slow start to the tournament.
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