Problems with Ghana Amateur Boxing Despite Three Gold In Guinea
Only three boxers represented Ghana at the recent 2025 African Youth Boxing Championship held in Conakry, Guinea from May 16 to 24.
18 years old Mathias Ashitey (Flyweight-51Kg), George Dowouna (Bantamweight-54Kg) and Desmond Pappoe (Middleweight-75Kg) all won Gold Medals for Ghana, so I was imagining if eight boxers had represented the nation.
So at the end of the tournament Ghana won the bronze for team placing and a cup to display.
Assistant coach of the national team, George Martey did a splendid work, leading and training them to achieve the remarkable feat.
Nine countries took part and Ghana’s Black Rocket won three gold medals with an assistant trainer heading the delegation. South Africa paraded many boxers and placed first.
As a nation that has won silver and bronze medals at the Olympic Games and collected massive laurels at Commonwealth and African Games we still have not realized that Boxing is one sport that God has blessed Ghana and we need to water this seed to grow and grow and grow like Cocoa.
Governments have come and gone, Ministers have come and gone, but the sport that keeps saving the face of the nation at the international level keeps suffering.
Although the Black Rockets, as the national youth boxing team is known, won three gold medals and placed third, they could have done better with the representative of more boxers to get exposed and the experience for the future.
Yours Truly is informed the team had to toil before flying to Conakry in West Africa, Guinea, due to lack of funds for transportation (airline tickets) and per diems.
I plead with the Sports & Recreation Minister, Hon. Kofi Iddi Adams to work on the Sports Fund very fast because that could be a visionary idea to solve some of the problems with Ghana Sport.
Recently it was another sad site to see the Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA) visiting the Kaneshie Sports Complex which is a venue that has and can produce many sports stars.
For sports, especially boxing to jell and the boxers to stay at the amateur level and fight for Ghana, there must be more investment and exposure for all the Black Rockets and Black Bombers not some.
I salute Mr. George Lamptey, former President of the GBF who is now a Technical Officer of the IBA. He was very instrumental in the success of the three Black Rockets. The Ghana Olympic Committee Board Member said Ghana should have registered more boxers.
The recent Retreat organized by the new leadership of the GOC in Koforidua discussed funding of sports and other important issues. They pledged and formed a federation’s led strategy to save Ghana Sports.
By Sammy Heywood Okine