The national 200m record holder was looking to put behind him the disappointment from the 100m heats and secure a semi-final berth in the 200m race but a fifth-place finish in heat 1 meant he missed out.

Joe Paul attributed his performance to a lack of endurance caused by injuries.

“This is the fastest I’ve run in 200m all season. I feel like I’m getting back to my last year shape at the right time,” he told Joy Sports after the race.

“I think the 200m is not as short as the hundred and you need endurance and stuff like that to be able to cross the line. Looking at the injuries that I’ve faced during the season, there are some training workouts that I wasn’t able to do or finish so it’s like the endurance part is not really there but you still want to push to see how best we can come out with results.”

Joe Paul’s best this season in 200m was 20.52s, coming into the competition. The improvement was great but not remarkable.

Ghana’s quest in sprints has been cut short with failed attempts in 100m and 200m. Next for Joseph Paul Amoah and Ghana’s sprint team is the 4x 100m relay which starts on Friday.

Joe Paul, who missed out on a 100m semifinal spot in the early hours of Saturday, July 16, will look to redeem himself when he features in the 200m heats on Tuesday at 12:05 Ghana time.

The Ghanaian will run in heat 1 alongside Brazil’s Lucas Rodrigues, Jerome Blake from Canada and Britain’s Joe Ferguson.

The first three athletes of each heat and three other athletes with the fastest times will qualify to the semi-final.

There have been problems for other African countries getting their full entourage into Eugene for the biggest Athletics event including Nigeria’s Ezinne Abba and Akintola Alaba being forced to miss the event but there were no such problems for Ghana.

Long jumper, Deborah Acquah was first to arrive and was quickly followed by head coach, Christian Nsiah.

Though the sprinters experienced a bit of delay, national 100m record-holder, Benjamin Azamati and coach Elorm Amenakpor’s arrival were followed by national 200m record-holder, Joseph Paul Amoah, who was alongside relay team members, Joseph Manu, Sean Safo Antwi and Emmanuel Yeboah.

The team had a light training session this evening and would look to do more tomorrow.

Azamati and Paul Amoah will feature in the 100m scheduled for the opening day of the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.

Below are photos of Team Ghana after arriving in Eugene: