Ghanaian blind Paralympic cycler revealed he is using old bike

Frederick Assor together with his pilot Rudolf Mensah are part of the group that is partaking at Paralympic in Paris 2024 and were spotted with spoked wheels and a Heath Robinson air.

Assor and Mensah both occupied the bottom spot during men’s B 4,000m individual on the opening day of the competition, finished on record time of 6min 30.071sec below African record of 2min 35sec and finished behind Tristan Bangma of the Netherlands, who broke the world record with an average speed of 61kph.

Assor and Mensah’s recorded a speed of 36.9kph. They returned on Sunday, whooped along by the crowd, this time in the B 1,000m time trial, where they also retained the bottom spot.

Assor was impressed by the opportunity he was afforded at Paralympic highlighting that they have only problem of using old bike.

Assor said “It’s nice riding on a big platform like the Paralympics, but the issue is that we are using a very, very old bike.

“You can see that we are riding with all our energy, our strength, because you pedal, you pedal a lot. But you see the other countries, they pedal slowly because their crank is very, very big. They have a 144 crank, but we are using a 50 crank so if they go once, we have to go three times.”

Assor loved sport as a child, playing football, volleyball and athletics. Assor confessed that he became blind at the age of 14 while he was writing his exam.

He said “We were writing exams and then I couldn’t see again. Just like that. It has given me more confidence and boldness. It means I don’t fear when I’m walking, because when you are riding you can’t see anything but you are moving fast.”

He becomes the first blind athlete to compete at Paralympic and this year’s edition in France its his second appearance after making his first appearance in Tokyo.

During the competition in Tokyo Assor with Mensah saw their bike lost in transit and they had to borrow one from the Japanese federation.

This time they have also had bike problems, the French team later lending them some wheels, which they’ve now returned.

There are only a handful of velodromes in Africa, including one in Egypt and a concrete one in Lagos, and when Mensah first saw one he wasn’t convinced.

Mensah went on to emphasize that at the first time he was scared about the outcome but after saw two ladies from Britain competing then felt he can do it and help Assor.

He said “I was afraid. I asked myself, can I ride on that? I saw two ladies from Britain, the way they rode on the velodrome, their speed and skills, then I saw that I can do it.

“And I told him [Assor], it’s easy, we can do it. He tried before and he fell down, but I was good to him, I said to him, let me ride you, let’s do it.”

Assor also noted that other people back at home, first time they saw them on the road side cycling they thought they were using leisure.

Assor said “When people see us, they think we are having leisure, because they have not seen two people sitting on one bike before. Sometimes when we tell them, it amazes them that a blind man is riding.”

Ghana is amongst the nationas that sent small group of athletes at Paralympic in Paris French.

Assor, Zinabu Issah, who got through qualifying in the wheelchair competition will compete at shot-put on Wednesday while Patricia Kyeremaa lost the last 16 of the women’s K44 +65kg taekwondo and the powerlifter Tahiru Haruna set to compete in the +107kg final on Sunday.

When pressed with a question regarding the treatment they receive at their motherland as disabled people; Assor revealed that they are treated bad.

Assor said “Not good, We are far behind. We have a lot of abilities in people with disabilities. There are people who would be interested in doing sports. There are people who would be interested in doing other things, like sewing, shoe making. But with all these things, it boils down to the resources and the facility for doing this.

“I hope someone will read this and say: ‘Have some wheels.’ And then we could get a lot of people who could qualify for a competition like this. But with just one person all the time and no equipment, it’s not healthy.”

BY LUCKY SEANEGO