Commonwealth Long Jump bronze-medalist, Deborah Acquah, says news of her qualification to the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest was so pleasant to hear.
Her place at the biggest Athletics meet of the year was confirmed after World Athletics updated their official website with a list of qualified athletes.
Deborah’s bronze medal-winning jump of 6.94m at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham last year, according to the sport’s world governing body, was enough to participate at the meet because her mark met the official entry standard.
“After the Commonwealth Games, I was made to understand that this might be for this season too. It wasn’t really a surprise but then after the Commonwealth Games, I never heard anything about that anymore. I was just here until I logged into Twitter and then I saw your post and I was like yeah so that’s so true”.
Without any such news, Deborah had to travel to top meets in the outdoor season with the hope of making the qualifying standard, or building enough points through World Athletics-accredited competitions to have made the cut.
All of that effort will now be channelled into preparing for the main competition according to Ghana’s Long Jump record-holder.
”I was kind of having a little problem with immigration and I got to sort that out. So I was kind of like off training like I was on and off because it was between knowing if I’ll be able to travel or I’ll just be here like not knowing when I’ll be good, you know when I’ll be able to solve this immigration stuff that I’m talking about.”
I spoke to 🇬🇭National Long Jump Queen @Deborahacquah4 🗣who's qualification to the 2023 World Athletics Championships was confirmed days ago.@WorldAthletics deemed her Bronze medal winning jump of 6.94m at the Commonwealth games enough to earn a ticket to Budapest in August. pic.twitter.com/nCK1b2hXoZ
— George Addo Jnr (@addojunr) February 1, 2023
“So, I was kind of on and off training because if I wasn’t sure what I was training for. It’s kind of a relief because I don’t know how this whole thing’s going to bother me and how it’s going to prevent me from doing the best that I’m supposed to be doing; so, it’s really a relief that I’ve really qualified so all I have to do is you know just to maintain my strength and get in a groove,” she explained.
Germany’s Malaika Mihambo the defending Champion, Ivana Vuelta of Serbia, who won the European Diamond League and Commonwealth champion, Ese Brume of Nigeria, have all qualified.
Deborah opened her 2023 indoor season by placing second with a mark of 6.62m at the Razorback Invitational and has joined Ghana’s Men’s 4x100m relay team who grabbed their ticket to the Budapest 2023 with their performance at the last Championships in Oregon, USA.