Gambia’s Queen Of Track
By Buba Gagigo
Gina Bass and colleagues are set to make history by representing The Gambia at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games later this month.
Bass, Gambia and Africa’s Queen of track would compete for the 100m race on 30th July and 31st July as well as the 200m on 3rd August 2021.
Gina, who is the first ever Gambian to qualify for the finals at the World Athletics Championships would be hoping to make history after representing The Gambia at this year’s delayed Olympic Games.
She currently holds national records in both the 100 and 200 metres.
Earlier this month, the Queen of track and field finished second in the 100m event at the 12th edition of the Montreuil Meeting in France, behind the Ivorian, Marie Jose Talou, the sprinter she beat in 2019 during the 200m event at the 12th African Games in Rabat. She clocked 11.30 seconds at the 12th edition of the Montreuil Meeting in France.
One of her colleagues at the delayed Tokyo Games, Ebrima Camara, would perform on 31st July 2021 at the same event.
Ebrima, fondly referred to as Nesta, gained his maiden international experience in 2013 at the African Youth Championships in Warri, in Nigeria, where he finished fourth in the 100 meter run in 10.91 seconds.
He then went on to finish at the Junior African Championships in Réduit with 11.27 seconds in the lead and won the silver medal in the Gambian 4 x 400-meter relay in 3: 14.8 minutes.
Two years later, Camara reached seventh place over 100 meters at the Junior African Championships in Addis Ababa in 10.91 second and finished sixth in the 4 x 100 meter relay in 42.00 seconds.
He then took part in the Africa Games in Brazzaville for the first time and was eliminated there with a timing of 10.60 s and 40.09 seconds in the 100 meters and 4 x 100 meter relay in the preliminary round respectively.
In 2017, he reached the semi-finals over 100 meters at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Baku, in which he was eliminated with 10.66 seconds. In addition, he finished fourth with the relay in 40.20 seconds.
The following year he participated in the Commonwealth Games held in the Australian Gold Coast over 100 meters with 10.50 s and with the relay team clocking 40.57 seconds. He also ran the 200-meter race with a timing of 21.58 seconds, but that was not enough for him to qualify for the next round.
Ebrima Buarro who is also representing The Gambia in the Swimming competition would perform on the 30th July; while Faye Njie who is representing The Gambia for Judo will perform on Monday 26th July 2021, respectively.