Ghanaian athlete, Abigail Kwarteng obliterated the women’s high jump national record by 5cms when she scaled to a new personal best height of 1.92m to win gold at the War Eagle Invitational in Auburn, Alabama on Saturday April 16, 2022.
The 25 year old’s new PB breaks Ghana’s previous high jump record (1.87m), which Kwarteng also set in 2018. It also means the Sehwi Muoho native has booked her qualification to the 2022 Commonwealth Games to be held in Birmingham, United Kingdom in late July.
She is the latest Ghanaian athlete to qualify for the competition with a national record, with Deborah Acquah and Benjamin Azamati recording similar feats a fortnight ago.
The first-place finish tops the previous outdoor meet record of 1.87 meters set in 2012 by Ann Dudley and also tops the indoor-meet record of Ann Dudley’s in which she reached a height of 1.86 meters in 2013.
Heading into the weekend, 1.92 meters would put Kwarteng at third in the US and tops her conference-leading height of 1.84 meters.
The Middle Tennessee graduate student’s latest feat is a continuation of her red hot form since the start of the outdoor season, in which she has already twice been named Conference athlete of the week.
Four of her all time top 10 jumps have all come in 2022.
It’s a remarkable comeback for Kwarteng, who had been out injured for almost three years, having last represented the country at the 2019 African Games in Rabat, Morocco.
She has now set her sights on qualifying for the 2022 World Athletics Championships to staged in Oregon, USA in mid July. The women’s high jump qualification mark for that competition stands at 1.96m.