NASSAU, Bahamas – West Texas A&M sophomore Isaac Botsio and graduate Benjamin Azamati qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics in the men's 4x100 relay on Sunday night at the World Athletics Relays Bahamas. They will represent their home country of Ghana in the relay event.   
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Botsio and Azamati travelled to Nassau, Bahamas for the World Athletics Relays Bahamas from May 4-5 to compete with their two teammates, Ibrahim Fuseini (Texas A&M Commerce) and Joseph Amoah. The head coach for Ghana is Elorm Amenakpor who is also a volunteer assistant coach for sprints at West Texas A&M University. 
 
Botsio ran the second leg with Azamati running the third leg of the 4x100. Ghana missed out on securing a bid to Paris on Saturday night in the first race after being disqualified from a dropped baton, thus missing out on the World Athletics Relays finals, that were contested on Sunday night, but all countries that failed to qualify on Saturday, had a second chance on Sunday night.
 
Ghana finished first in the second race on Sunday night in a highly competitive field and one where they needed a top-2 finish to qualify. Team Ghana posted a time of 38.29 seconds to punch its ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
 
The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are slated for July 24-August 11. The Athletics events begin on August 1 and the first round of the men's 4x100 meter relay is scheduled for Thursday, August 8.
 
This will be Azamati's second time qualifying for the Olympics with his first being the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 100-meter. Azamati ran for two years for the West Texas A&M Buffs then went on to sign a professional running contract with Asics. Since that time, Azamati has completed his degree at WT and graduated in December 2023 while continuing to run professionally. Botsio, only a sophomore at WT, continues to run for the No. 1 Buffs and will compete at the NCAA Division II National Championship held later this month in Emporia, Kansas from May 23-25. 
 
Botsio continues to hold onto his status of fastest 100-meter runner this season, all conditions, with his 9.90 set at the Jo Meaker Classic with Azamati ranking 30^th this season with a 10.03 time from the Corky/Crofoot Shootout meet.