At
the age of 21, Miss Gina Bass will be taking part in her first Olympic Games in
Rio. She made her first major international appearance only in 2011 at the
World Youth Championship in Lille, France, but has already achieved a historic
record, becoming the first female athlete to break two national records and
qualified to the Olympic Games.
In
2012, Miss Gina Bas, then aged 16, was with her countrymen in Lille, France for
the World Youth Championship where she finished 13th in the world ranking in
the 100m with a time of 12.44.
“I
never thought about competing in the Olympic Games when I was growing up,” she
says; but on that day, while training to reach the highest international level,
a thought crossed her mind.
“Wow!
I took part in training sessions with top athletes in Africa at the IAAF High
Performance Center in Dakar when I realised that I could be there myself one
day!”
Born
in Touba Couta on 3 May 1995, Miss Gina Bass is the fastest female athletes,
and certainly among the most adorable young women, in the country.
Many
Gambian sports pundits describe them as the young ‘demon’ on the running track.
Gina
has dozens of honours under their belts. She cruised to victory at the Regional
Athletic Championship held in Dakar, Senegal, winning the 100m event with a
timing of 11.40 seconds.
Based
at the IAAF High Performance Center in Dakar under Olympic Solidarity
Scholarship from The Gambia National Olympic Committee (GNOC) she has been
competing against the world’s best runners.
Her
potentials are considered massive and her qualification to the Rio Olympic
Games was not a surprise to many local and international sports pundits.
The
young athlete impressed in French Guyana in June as she set a new national
record of 23.14 seconds in the 200 meter race and become the first Gambian
female athlete to qualify for the Olympic Games after bagging a ticket to the
2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.
Gina
Bass, who was voted as the best female athlete in the country by the Sports
Journalists Association of The Gambia (SJAG) in May 2016, will likely be the
country’s flag bearer at Rio.
She
is the second Gambian athlete in history to clock the qualification standard
for a summer Olympic Games, after Suwaibou Sanneh made it to the last Olympic
Games in London 2012 in the 100m.
In
her last international competition before the Rio Olympic Games, Gina Bass won
the bronze medal in the 200 meters at the 2016 African Championships and set a
National Record of 22.92 in Durban, South Africa in June.
Gina’s
achievement has drawn nationwide acclaim, with sports enthusiasts praising her for making the sports
fraternity proud.
Few
days after the opening ceremony of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, on 5 August
in the Rio Olympic Arena, the Brazilian public will be able to see the
fantastic Miss Gina Bass for themselves. Their enthusiasm is bound to inspire her
with the energy she needs to shine on the Rio Olympic Stadium.
On
preparation
“There’s
a lot that goes into our mental preparation while at our training Camp in
Italy. We’re mainly working on consistency, precision and confidence. I think
whenever you’re confident in all of your skills and routines, that’s when you
do your best. There’s no right or wrong way to prepare mentally, but we do a
lot of work on pressure so we know how to handle it whenever we go out and
compete.”
On
going to Rio
“It’s
very exciting that I could possibly be representing The Gambia at the Olympic
Games Rio 2016. What the Gambian girls achieved in the past Olympics has been
very inspiring, I’m just really excited and focused for the journey ahead.”
