Long jumper Ignisious Gaisah has blamed fatigue for his not too good performance at the African Athletics Championship at the Chalce de Goulle stadium in Porto Novo, Benin.

Gaisah competed on Wednesday, 27th June but Team Ghana only arrived in Cotonou on Tuesday morning having endured a 17 hour bus journey from Accra to Porto Novo.

Gaisah, who had the leading jump of 7.96m going into the final, found the going very tough as he failed to replicate his earlier feat and could only jump 7.72m. Speaking to www.liquidsportsghana.com, Ignisious Gaisah admitted that tiredness had its toll on him during the competition.

“I didn’t feel well on the track because my body was tired. I had a better jump during qualification compared to the final day.”

“I believe it’s due to the long journey. I think we drove 17 hours or more before getting here and it sucked a lot of energy from us. “So travelling by road in that small bus did not help us.” The 2006 World Championship winner missed the long jump board on several occasions, but Gaisah explained the phenomenon saying, “I always took off before the board because the body was tired.

“And every time I adjusted my check mark to be able to make the board, I still took off before the board. It all tells you the body was tired.”

“So I will put all the blame on the travel arrangements.”

Senegal’s Ndiss Kaba Badji emerged the overall winner with a leap of 8.04m while South Africa’s Zarck Visser took second place with 7.98m.

Meanwhile, www.liquidasportsghana.com understands that Team Ghana had to delay its departure from Accra to Porto Novo due to the late release of funds from the National Sports Authority to the Ghana Athletics Association.