Many Londoners of Gambian origin brushing shoulders with big shots in the UK in their own rights, yet most of them are not even known to their communities. One Such personality is Amina Ceesay-Jaiteh, an athlete burning the London city tracks with speed.

Amina has come to the fore in British sprinting in her mid-20s. She was 7^th at 100m and sixth at 200m in the 2005 AAAs. She won the southern Championship 100 meters and 200 meters in 2004. She retained the titles the following year and has a personal best of 11.65 seconds for 100m and 23.97 for 200m. Amina is currently ranked 6^th in this year’s overall UK Challenge.

Amina’s impressive performance earned her a place in the Great Britain 4x100m relay squad in the 10^th IAAF World Championships in athletics held in Helsinki, Finland August 2005. Other international duties include England matches against several European countries held in different venues in Europe; such as Latvia, Switzerland, Hungary, Ireland, Slovakia and Norway.

While most elite British athletes are funded through the sports lottery to prepare for major competitions, Amina foots her own bills to do what she loves. She occasional gets grants from the London Borough of Waltham Forest that in turn uses her services to implement sports initiatives.

She has two younger sisters active as athletes: Nusrat does 100 meters hurdles and Zainab set a triple jump best of 12.87 when second in the AAA U23s in 2005.

It’s not all about speed and strength for this woman. Amina is a graduate from the University College London with a B.Sc Hons. degree in Podiatry and specializes in the lower limbs. She works full time with the NHS Southwark PCT specialist care unit as a podiatrist for the past 3 years.

AS the athletics world prepare for the 11^th World championship, Amina is buckling up her spikes in preparation for the world athletics show down in Osaka, Japan in summer 2007.

Even though Amina visits her native country every 12 months, the Gambia athletics federation seemingly incapable of retaining homegrown talents, obviously couldn’t spot amina’s talents on time before GB Athletics grab her to perform for her country of birth, England. Under existing Athletics laws Amina can only compete for another country after serving a 3 years ban should she choose to Abandon Britain for Gambia because, she has already competed for Great Britain at an International level.

Yet her sisters, Nusrat and Zainab Ceesay love to compete for the Gambia and have been approached by the National Olympic Committee Chairman George Gomez earlier this year.

Amina was born in London on November 19^th 1979 to Gambian Parents, Momodou Ceesay and Binta Sonko who have settled in the UK since the mid 70s.

She is married to a former Gambia Radio and TV News and Sports journalist, Lamin Jaiteh now studying Computer System Engineering in the UK.

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