Sarfo Ansah and Rose Yeboah, two athletes from Ghana, will not compete in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest since the Hungarian Embassy in Accra denied them both visas.
Bawa Fuseini, the recently-elected president of Ghana Athletics, was also refused a visa to accompany the team to the same competition.
Yeboah, the female high jump champion of Africa, just took home the gold at the World University Games in China with a new mark of 1.94 meters.
Ansah, who was supposed to be a member of Ghana’s 4x100m relay team, is a last-minute replacement for the injured Benjamin Azamati.
The applications for both athletes were turned in two weeks ago, when their participation was only just officially confirmed.
The issuing of the visas was anticipated to be a regular procedure with accreditation from the competition’s organizers, World Athletics, but on Monday, the Hungarian Embassy in Accra informed the delegation that visas for the two athletes had been rejected.
The president of Ghana Athletics, Bawa Fuseini, was also refused a visa but, he would still be able to travel to Hungary for the competition because he has a Schengen visa that was provided by France.
Prior to the 10-day competition that begins on August 19, 2023, the remainder of team Ghana is now camping in France and will depart for Budapest on Friday.
Joseph Paul Amoah, the 200-meter world record holder for Ghana and bronze medalist at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, is the team’s captain.
