Ghana’s Sprint King Abdul-Rasheed Saminu signs deal with ASICS

 

Ghana’s 100m record holder Abdul-Rasheed Saminu has signed a professional contract with Japanese sportswear giant ASICS.

He joins a select group of Ghanaian athletes previously associated with the global brand, including Benjamin Azamati—now signed to Swiss sportswear company On—and Joseph Paul Amoah.

Saminu is expected to compete in ASICS gear at major international championships, including the 2025 World Relay Championships, the 2026 Commonwealth Games, the Senior African Athletics Championships, the African Games and the 2028 Olympic Games, among others.

An alumnus of the University of Ghana and the University of South Florida, Saminu etched his name into the record books in May 2025 when he broke Ghana’s long-standing 100m record, clocking 9.86 seconds—a world-leading time at the time. He bettered that mark two months later, stopping the clock at 9.84 seconds in July.

Saminu represented Ghana at the 2024 Olympic Games, where he reached the semi-finals of the men’s 100m. He also claimed gold as part of Ghana’s 4x100m relay team at the 2024 African Athletics Championships in Cameroon.

At the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Saminu again advanced to the semi-finals of the 100m and played a key role in Ghana’s men’s 4x100m relay team, which broke the national record and finished fourth in the final—signalling the country’s growing presence on the global sprinting stage.