( Source: www.aips.com) - Gina Bass has a dream to be Africa’s fastest woman. Her name does not ring a bell in the African women’s sprint circles. Ivorian duo of Marie-Josée Ta Lou and Murielle Ahouré, as well as Nigeria’s Blessing Okgbare are more familiar household names on the continent. However, Gina back home in the Gambia is a sports icon. Bass has broken the national record for 100m and 200m. In Rio 2016, the 24-year-old was the flag bearer for her country.
The Gambian made her first appearance at an Africa Games four years ago in Congo Brazzaville but she was unable to make it to the final stage.
She then finally announced her presence on the athletics scene in 2016, when she took Bronze in the Women’s 200m race in the Africa Athletics Championships in Durban, South Africa clocking a time of 22.92. But she failed to shine in the Women’s 100m final back then, finishing in the eighth position.
The road to success since then has been very topsy turvy. She participated in the Rio Olympics but did not sparkle, and got no medal at the 2018 Africa Athletics Championships in Asaba, Nigeria.
“From 2017 to 2018 I had no coach, I was training alone it was really hard for me because the centre was closed due to the fact that the director had been changed,” Gina explains. The sprinter believes that the political situation in the Gambia - after the country's ex-President Yahya Jammeh’s was forced to exit power following his surprise defeat in the 2016 presidential election - prevented her from reaching her full potential.
In addition to that, Gina also reveals her performance in Nigeria last year at the continental championships was not spectacular because she had just come back from injury, coupled with the long absence of a training centre.
However, it seems things have taken a new direction for the sprinter at the Africa Games in Rabat. Gina had the best time in the Women’s 100m Heat, clocking 11.38 secs. Then she took the silver medal in the final on Tuesday with a time of 11:13 secs, missing gold by four seconds. Reigning African Champion for 100m and 200m, Marie-Josée Ta Lou clocked 11.09 secs to clinch the gold medal.
After placing 2nd in the final an ecstatic Gina reveals, “I am very grateful that I have made it to Doha,” the Gambian said, referring to next month’s World Athletics Championships. On the possibility of her usurping Marie to become Africa’s fastest woman, the 24-year-old believes “everything is possible”. And with a good form and high spirits, who knows, her dream may just come true.
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