Ignisious Gaisah

Ignisious Gaisah on 12 March 2010 at the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar

Anthony Ignisious Gaisah Essuman ( born July 20, 1983 in Kumasi, Ghana) is a Dutch long jumper Ghanaian origin.

Gaisah, who took up his move to the Netherlands in 2001 as Anthony Essuman, won the 1999 national championship in the long jump with a distance of 7.40 m and was appointed thereby for the first time in the national team, celebrated at the Junior Africa Championships 1999 in Tunis his first international success when he won the bronze medal with a width of 7.42 m. In 2002, he broke the African Junior continental record with a width of 8.12 m, which had lasted until the year 2010.

Larger international attention gained Gaisah in August 2003, when he led the meantime at the World Championships in Paris after the second attempt, finishing in fourth place at the end of 8.13 m. After winning the Pan-African Games in Abuja in 2003 with a width of 8.30 m Gaisah jumped at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 with 8.24 m national record, finishing in sixth place. At the World Championships in Helsinki in 2005, he jumped national record with 8.34 m and won the silver medal behind Dwight Phillips (USA). In 2006 he won the gold medal at the World Indoor Championships in Moscow and at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. On 14 July 2006 Gaisah presented in a competition in Rome with 8.43 m personal best and at the same time a new country record. On 2 February the same year he had already improved in Stockholm valid today African indoor record at 8.36 m.

2006 Gaisah was awarded the Grand Cross of the National Order of Ghana. In July 2013 Gaisah took Dutch citizenship and has since been in the national team of the Netherlands.

On August 16, 2013 Gaisah won his first international competition under the Dutch flag, the silver medal at the World Championships in Moscow, Russia and celebrated his biggest success since 2006. With a width of 8.29 m also he improved the existing for 25 years Dutch record Emiel Mellaard by ten centimeters.

Gaisah is 1,86 m tall and has a competition weight of 70 kg. He starts for the club PAC Rotterdam.