July 22, 2016 By Sahr Morris Jr.
Sierra Leonean youngster Ishmael Kamara is gearing up to represent the country in next month’s Rio Olympic Games, but has quickly ruled out any chance of him challenging the big guns for an Olympic medal.
Kamara is expected to compete in the 100m as one of Sierra Leone’s two unqualified athletes in the games and he is in high determination to prove himself in the country’s national colours.
The lad, who in June this year clocked a season’s best in the 100 metres dash to match his personal best of 10.77 seconds at the Zone II Junior Athletics Championships in Banjul, The Gambia, believes the Rio Games is an opportunity for him to reduce his current 100 metres time.
“This is an opportunity for me and I thank God for such. I am going to the games not to win any medal because to be realistic it is difficult to achieve such against the big name athletes for now,” Kamara said, adding that he hopes to give a facelift to Sierra Leone in the games with a positive performance.
Kamara, who is currently the fastest home-based sprinter, said: “I am looking forward to improve on my time at the world stage under advance timing. I have the spirit to reduce my time and want to prove to the World that we have the talent back home, we are lagging behind others just because of the lack of opportunities.”
The Rio games will be Kamara’s biggest event in his athletics career, but he had a big smile during his first International outing, winning silver medal for the country at the Zone II Junior Athletics Championships in Banjul.
Kamara and U.S. based sprinter, Hafsatu Kamara, are Sierra Leone’s two athletes that will compete in the track in this year’s Olympic Games. Four years back at the London Games, it was Ibrahim Turay and Ola Sesay who represented the country.
Turay competed in the 200m event at the London 2012 Games and was eliminated in the first round, but finished with a personal best time of 21.90 sec, while Sesay, who was the country’s flag bearer at the games, contended in the long jump and was ranked 23 out of 28 athletes. She jumped 6.22 cm.