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Gina Bass misses out on Rio 2016 Olympic semifinals

Aug 16, 2016, 12:25 PM | Article By: Namory Trawally in Rio Brazil

African Female Bronze medalist Gina Bass has missed out for the semifinals of the 200m of Rio 2016 Olympic Games after finishing 5th in round one of the event with a time of 23.43seconds on Monday morning.

Sprinter Gina Bass, who was Gambia’s flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Rio, is the first female athlete to represent The Gambia in the Olympic Games with standard qualification.

The 21-year-old Gambian athlete who holds the new national record of 23.14 seconds in the 200 meter had a good start but succumbed to former African champion Nigerian Blessing Okacbare in the final stages of the race.

Gina Bass, now ranked 47th in the world in the 200m race, was making her debut in the Olympic Games.

Nigeria’s Blessing Okacbare and Britain’s Asher-Smith came first and second in the heat.

Blessing clocked 22:71 while Asher-Smith clocked 22:77. In third position is Strachan Anthonique with 22:96.

“I wanted to run my best performance but I could not realize my dream,” Gina Bass said. “The lack of competition since we came from the African Championship in June in South Africa partly contributed to my performance.”

Reacting to Gina’s performance, head coach Mariama Sallah-Saine said her performance was encouraging despite dropping from her personal best. It was a good performance based on her experience, she added.

“We are hoping to see her coming to her best performance ahead of next year’s Islamic Games in Baku and the 2017 World Athletics Championship in London where she has already qualified to compete in,” coach Sallah-Saine said.

For sprinter Adama Jammeh, his competition will begin on Tuesday 16 August at 11.50 Brazilian time, 14.50pm in Banjul.

If he crosses this stage, Adama Jammeh will run in the semifinals, on Wednesday 17 August at 22.00pm in Brazil exactly 01.00am on Thursday 18 August in Banjul.

Adama Jammeh, if qualified, will run the final on Thursday 18 August at 22.30pm in Brazil time exactly 01.30am on Friday 19 August 2016.