Ghana’s heptathlon star Margaret Simpson-Senya is a fine encouragement to women who entertain the sad notion that competitive sports could make them infertile. The versatile athlete of seven disciplines broke her athletics career in 2006 to have a baby and her brilliant winning form in the just ended Africa Athletics championships in Kenya should be good news for all sportswomen, especially those in my part of the world, to shun the superstition that sports would deny them the chance of having babies.

Since Margaret hit the headlines in 2002 with a bronze at the Manchester Commonwealth Games, her first major international tournament, it had been a sick joke that with her seemingly masculine features she could have problems having a child.  I am therefore particularly happy that she has proved the skeptics wrong, just like the way my favourite South African athlete Caster Semanya has done about her so called gender status.

Margaret has quite a remarkable athletics record. She was the only Ghanaian medalist at the Manchester Commonwealth Games in 2002.  The Sportswriters Association of Ghana (SWAG), of which I was then an influential member, honoured her as Sports Personality of the year with a prediction that she would really go places.
Indeed in the following year, 2003 to be precise, she won gold at the 8th Africa Games held in Abuja, Nigeria.  In 2004, Margaret met a tough opposition at the Athens Olympic Games but her 9th position was regarded as quite encouraging. She was back in winning form in 2005 at the World Athletics championships in Helsinki, Finland with a bronze medal.

It was after this achievement that she decided to raise a family. She returned briefly after two years but a slight injury disrupted her progress until her remarkable return to action early in the year to make such a stunning presence at the just ended Nairobi Games.

Margaret, who is maturing like old wine, promises to make it big at the upcoming Commonwealth Games in India. She is really impressed with the performance of budding women sprinters like Rosina Amenebede, Elizabeth Amolofo, Beatrice Gyaman and Fling Owusu Agyepong at the Nairobi Games and expects a similar show at the Commonwealth Games.

These lady sprinters won bronze in the 4x100m relay in Nairobi and there is the general hope in Ghanaian sporting circles that women’s interest in athletics is back and we could soon reach the days of the Christiana Boatengs, Alice Anums, Rose Harts and Hannah Afriyies.

Who says Ghana is only interested in football? Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.