Tim Abeyie targets 2012 Olympics

Ghana sprinter Tim Abeyie is eyeing qualification for the 2012 Olympics after making his debut appearance in the 2011 rLG Ghana Grand Prix. The 28 year old, who is a former British sprinter, only recently completed formalities to compete for his father’s country.

The 200m specialist made his home debut in Kumasi last Saturday running the second leg of the men’s 4*100m relay team as they qualified for the World Athletics Championship in Daegu after clocking 38.93 secs.

Speaking to E TV Sports, Tim Abeyie, who also placed 4th in the men’s 200m, says it will be dream come true to qualify for the 2012 Olympics in London. “My plan has always been to go the All African Games and the World Championship and get the standard for the Olympic Games so that I have a base for next year,” he said.

“If I go to the Africa Games I will like to do the 200m and as I say, I like to go there and compete for medals. That has always been my plan.” “I always wanted to go to Daegu and obviously my long term goal is to go to the Olympics. For Abeyie, the meet gave him a firsthand view of the state of the sport in the country having represented Great Britain, and Wales at Commonwealth level competitions in the past.

Abeyie recons athletics Ghana is in a healthy state but added that there is more room for improvement. “It’s good. The only way that can improve is for people on higher stage compete at higher level and that will get more people into the sports. “That will help the progress of the younger ones looking to go into the sports and all over the country not just in Kumasi because I notice that the senior team is made of about 60-70% athletes from Kumasi.”

“I think getting it around and all over the country is the right thing to do. The German based athlete is now looking forward to competiting at the upcoming World Champion alongside Aziz Zakari, Ashaad Agyapong and Emmanuel Appiah Kubi after the men’s 4*100m relay team secured qualification.

“It was good considering the conditions. We only got to know each other on the trip with less than three four days,” Abeyie told E TV. “I did not do any changes with the guy’s. The only changes we did was before the competition-literally 20 minutes to the competition so there is much more to come.

Abeyie competed at the 2004 World Indoor Championships, the 2006 World Indoor Championships and the 2006 European Championships without reaching the final. He won a silver medal in the 4x100m relay at the 2005 Summer Universiade.

His personal best time is 20.57 seconds, achieved in July 2008 at Eton, Berkshire.