Liquid Sports Ghana, organisers of the annual Liquid Sports Ghana Awards, has released its long list of nominees for the third edition of the awards to be held at the plush Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City on Saturday, 9th June, 2018.

The 3rd Liquid Sports Ghana Awards which is sponsored by Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City, Rokmer Pharma and the Indian Women’s Association of Ghana will recognise and reward athletes, individuals and organisations for their contributions to sports.

The long list, from which the short listed candidates and the eventual winners will be named, includes Ghana’s representatives at the 2017 IAAF World Championships in London including Africa’s number one ranked women’s triple jumper Nadia Eke, a former winner of the award Janet Amponsah, Alex Amankwah and 400m runner Emmanuel Dasor.

Other members of the women’s 4x100m relay team, who were ranked number one in Africa in 2017, were also selected based on their individual performances in the sprints. They include Flings Owusu Agyapong, a former winner of the award, Gemma Acheampong, Akua Obeng Akrofi and Persis William Mensah.

As many as 7 new national outdoor records were set by Ghanaian athletes around the globe during the 2017 season. The latter list includes 800m runner Alex Amankwah who broke into the top 20 world 800m list after shattering Kennedy Osei’s 23 year old national 800m record with a 1:44.80 (NR) clocking on 19th May, 2017.

Other notable national records came in the names of 2016 African Champion Nadia Eke who once again improved the national record to 13.93m (NR); Atsu Nyamadi’s trail blazing 7811pts in the decathlon; Agnes Abu’s 1500m record of 4.17.75m (NR); Claudia Ababio’s 15.34m (NR) in the shot put and Emelda Mal-Annan’s 60.09m (NR).

Sprinter Emmanuel Yeboah, who clocked the fastest time by a Ghanaian after producing a personal best 10.25s(PB) to qualify for the finals of the men’s 100m at the 29th Summer Universiade in Taipei City, also made the list.

After a breakthrough season which saw her clock personal bests 23.26s in the 200m and 52.47s in the 400m, USA based Akua Obeng Akrofi makes the list.

Home based athletes also have a strong presence on the long list after a stellar season which saw several youngsters from the nation’s senior high schools and second cycle institutions excel especially on the tracks.

The Ghana Athletics Association’s Circuit champions such as 100m sprinter Hor Halutie, 400m winner Rafiatu Nuhu, a 400m finalist at the Commonwealth Youth Games- Bahamas 2017, made the cut.

The Circuit’s 200m champion Sarfo Ansah is part of the list while Peter Ackah life time best 7.79m leap has been rewarded with a place in the elite list.

The list was compiled with references to the Ghana Athletics Association’s end of year 2017 rankings, the IAAF’s 2017 rankings, the IAAF Scoring Tables and athletics tracking website tilastopaja.

In a world championships year, Ghana produced its highest number of qualifiers for IAAF World Championships. The team however was unable to win medals and make the desired impact at the championships owing to inadequate preparations towards the athletics show piece competition.

A short list of top 12 athletes will be unveiled before the final awards ceremony is held at the Kempinski Hotel Gold Coast City on 9th June, 2018.