Ghanaian athlete, Deborah Acquah sets new world long jump record

Ghanaian long jumper, Deborah Acquah, has broken the Ghanaian national record in the women’s long jump with a jump of 6.89m (+0.07).

The 25-year-old has now outdone her personal best, and consequently assumes the position of world no.1 in women’s long jump.

In 2021, Ghanaian athlete Deborah Acquah broke Ghana’s women’s long jump record set 22 years ago by Rukaya Abdulai after establishing herself as the leading African jumper , but narrowly missed on an automatic qualification for the Tokyo Olympics.

The 24-year-old Texas A&M University undergraduate broke compatriot Ruky Abdulai’s old record set in 2007 but got agonisingly close to the automatic qualification mark for the Tokyo Olympics, missing the mark by 1cm.

However, Deborah Acquah’s record of 6.81m at last Saturday’s LSU Alumni Gold at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, took her current world ranking to eighth and number one in Africa.

She now holds both the indoor (6.65m) and outdoor long jump national records.

Her career has been on an upward curve since winning silver in the long jump at the 2019 African Games in Rabat, Morocco.

This month, Deborah Acquah has shown progress in both jumps in the outdoor season. She leaped 6.24 metres to finish second at in the women’s long jump event at the Texas vs Texas A&M meet Mike Myers stadium in Austin on April 2.

Her best performance in the triple jump came during the indoor season when she jumped 14.27m to place second in the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championship in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Source : graphics.com.gh