The National Boxing Teams, Black Bombers and Hitters, male and female respectively, have completed the 1st stage of their high-intensity residential camping at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium.
The team have been in Cape Coast for the past 3 weeks and will return to Accra for the remaining 3 weeks of the residential camping at the games village of the ACCRA 2023 on the campuses of the University of Ghana from 12th February 2024.
An arrangement would also be used to test the venues and training facilities for the upcoming Africa Games to start next month in Ghana’s administrative and political capital.
The special camping is aimed to prepare the Boxers for the following major international competitions fully:
1st World Qualifying Tournament Boxing Road to Paris – Busto Arsizio – Italy, (4 – 11 March 2024)
Road to Africa, Seeking Gold Medals in Accra 2023 – 13th Africa Games, (15th – 23rd March 2024)
The Team had earlier undertaken 3 months of non-residential training activities at the Accra Sports Stadium, just a few weeks after the debacle at the Africa Olympic Qualifiers in Dakar-Senegal, September -2024 where none of the 12 boxers( male & female) qualified for the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic games.
Reinforced with the likes of Tokyo 2020 Ghana’s sole medalist and Africa’s only boxing medal winner – Samuel Takyi, who now will be fighting at the Light Welterweight -63.5Kg.
Amadu Mohammed and his cousin hard-fighting light Flyweight – Mohammed Aryeetey, Welterweight Henry Malm, and also British-born Ghanaian Heavyweight -92Kg Mark Kojovi Ahondjo.
Ghana will likely feature a limited number of boxers (7 males & 2 Females) at the Italy qualifiers with a focus and priorities on categories that the country has comparative advantages, since the leadership of the Ghana Boxing Federation(GBF) Managers of the National Boxing Teams, Ghana Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Youth & Sports were not impressed with the output of the wholesale participation of boxers at the Dakar challenge, especially the females and will rather parade them at Africa games in Accra for the needed exposure and build on that for other international future engagements.
Meanwhile, the social media boxing sensation, UK-based Ghanaian – SETH GYIMAH also known as Freezy Macbones, has withdrawn from the national team to focus on his professional boxing & promotional activities, thus truncating his dream of fighting at the Olympic games.
For the records, The National Boxing Team, Black Bombers remains Ghana’s most successful sporting national team in the country’s participation at major Elite international competitions like the Olympic and Commonwealth games as showcased at immediate past editions where Samuel Takyi(Featherweight) won Bronze to break the nation’s 29years medal drought at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games, which also represented Africa’s only boxing medal at the Japanese capital taking the West Africa nation’s Olympic medal hauls to Five(5) with boxing producing four(4) which 80% mark.
From the Commonwealth games, boxing has won 35 out of 60 medals since independence that’s 60% including the very recent successes that produced the most valuables of two silvers from Abraham Mensah (Bantamweight) and Joseph Commey (Featherweight) & bronze though Abdul Walib Omar (Lightweight) out the total 5 Ghana won at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth games.
Without argument, amateur boxing remains Ghana’s leading medal prospect at future major international competitions and the sustainability of such records hinges on deliberate, planned and systematic preparations.
