Ajara deserves top SWAG award not Ayew or Afful
If my memory serves me right, Ajara Mohammed would be the first physically challenged person nominated for the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) 2011 Personality of the Year in recent years unless otherwise.
SWAG today January 3, 2012 announced that its prestigious or top award will be competed for by Ajara Mohammed – paralympic athlete, Andre Dede Ayew of Olympique Marseille and Esperance’s Harrison Afful.
SWAG’s top prize is given to a sports person who has excelled or achieved something in their field under the year in review.
Dede Ayew in 2011 was voted Marseille’s Best Player for the season 2010-2011 as he helped the French side to win the 2011 French Super Cup after hitting a hat trick against Lille.
The Ghanaian midfielder was recently crowned the 2011 BBC African Player and he is the third African best player, according to CAF’s 2011 awards table. Dede was also selected to be part of Africa’s best eleven.
For Harrison Afful, he scored the decider which saw his side Esperance of Tunisia beat Wydad Casablanca of Morocco 1-0 to win the CAF Champions League.
Here comes the gold medallist – Ajara Mohammed. She won Ghana’s first two gold medals in the paralympic event at the 10th All Africa Games held in Maputo September 2011.
She picked the gold medal in the 400 meters race and another gold in the 1500 meters in the Paralympic Sports at the event.
She won similar feats four years ago in Algeria where she completed the Games as the nation’s “Golden Girl”.
The feat saw the ‘Golden Girl’ Ajara Mohammed taking home $10,000 – the highest bonus of the entire Ghanaian contingent at the Games.
While Afful and Ayew’s achievements directly brought glory to clubs, Ajara’s brought the country honour.
It is only Dede Ayew’s BBC award that even came close to Ajara’s medals but even that is incomparable.
People are tipping Dede Ayew to win the SWAG award in the name of football but I say Ajara is the most deserved candidate for the award even though her sport is considered as a “lesser-known” one. Her achievement in 2011 is remarkable.
By Ekow Quandzie