It Could Be The Moment My Voice Went Off—Afua Asantewaa Ponders Over Reason For Her GWR Disqualification
During her appearance on UTV’s United Showbiz, Afua Asantewaa discussed the factors that potentially hindered her from achieving the Guinness World Record for the longest individual marathon.
She attributed her disqualification to the power outage, commonly known as dumsor, and the moment her voice faltered while singing, a new development that sparked an intense debate as far as entertainment in Ghana is concerned.
These incidents were identified as the primary elements that may have led to her failure to meet the requirements set by the Guinness World Record, particularly the breach in taking breaks between her performances.
Consequently, her efforts were not acknowledged, and she was unable to attain the coveted accolade.
“As human as I am, I felt it but there are two sides to it. When I even lost my voice…It got to a point where my voice went off and I couldn’t talk at all. With that, I did more than five five-minute break, that was the first one I encountered.
“However, what I know is that regardless of the challenge finish the attempt. Even those who entered the box…” she said when Halifax Ansah Addo asked if she knew the power cuts played a role in her not breaking the record.
Afua continued “I remember my health team, the psychologist kept asking me do you remember why you started this and so when he asks I tell him I remember. Halifax, the main reason was to project Ghanaian music. Halifax, when we were done they asked for the videos because we even forgot to fastrack something to get a certificate. It wasn’t only the technical error, even kids that came there weren’t allowed”.
On the possibility of dumsor contributing to her failure, here’s what she said:
“At Akwaaba village there was a plant, but it was taken away. But we had someone who sponsored us with a generator. There was a day when the light went off and when they were switching, it caught fire. It was ECG. The lights went off and I will say that it was 10 minutes.
“Honestly, if you ask me I think GTA and my team will be the best people to answer because at that time, I wouldn’t know the best period when it happened. Everything was off, the time, Dj, everything. The light went off in between an hour period.
You asked that at the point when the lights went off, I believed the attempt had failed, right? The motive of this attempt was not to give up. Let me establish a point…Even when my voice went off I could have stopped,” she said.
