Two Amateur boxers; Maxwell Amponsah and David Bawah have won the first medals for Ghana at the 10th All African Games dubbed ‘Maputo 2011’.
The boxers won the bronze medals for Ghana at the semi-finals stage of the competition even though they were beaten by their respective opponents. Maxwell Amponsah lost to his Nigerian counterpart Apochie Efetobor in the heavyweight division (91kg) while David Bawah was beaten by another Nigerian Lawal Lukeman in the light heavyweight division.
Other amateur boxers who did well but could not make it to the medal zone includes Benjamin Lamptey who earlier in the week beat Gabon’s B. Ragar by 21 points to 14 in the Lightweight division (60kg) Contest. Welterweight division had Musa Lawson Raman losing to his Camerounian counterpart Sumaila Mahaman in the second round and Emmanuel Martey also failed to progress from the Middleweight division.
In an interview with MultiTV after the feat, head coach of the team Ofori Asare said even though there are some new tactics and technicalities in the amateur boxing now, he is happy for what they have achieved so far and prayed for more sponsorship as they the boxers have always had the best medal prospect for Ghana.
Meanwhile South Africa continues with their dominance on the medal table having gathered 28 gold medals, 17 silver and 20 bronze. They are followed by Egypt with 8 gold, 4 silver and 2 Bronze closely followed by Tunisia with 7 gold, 12 silver and 6 bronze. Algeria, Senegal and Kenya have 4 gold medals each while Zimbabwe and Cameroun have two each with Nigeria and Angola each having 1 gold medal.
Ghana’s first medal at the games is expected to boost the morale of other sporting disciplines after initial setbacks and poor organization threatened the nations’ participation at this year’s event.
The Maputo Estrela Vermelha Sports Complex is the venue for the Boxing discipline at the All African Games. Catch the highlights of Ghana’s participation on both the Joy Sports Channel and Adom TV all on MultiTV.
