Promoters of the Ghana Professional Boxing League, Imax Boxing Promotions have released the official results and league table standing at the end of Season 2 of the exciting programme.

According to Group Director of Imax Promotions, Alhaji Fadi Fattal, the Ghana Armed Forces won the 2023 edition of the league as their last match against Charles Quartey was cancelled due to mayhem at the Bukom Boxing Arena, venue for the bouts.

He said the Ghana Army won and would be presented with the winner’s prize.

President of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) Mr. Abraham Neequaye congratulated the winners and promised to overcome all the shortfall in the competition.

He warned that indiscipline clubs / gyms would be expelled from the competition and appealed for more sponsors to support the GBA.

He said a date would be fixed for the presentation of awards for best gym and best boxer.

Meanwhile, the Sports Writers Association of Ghana (SWAG) has named the GBA as one of the best five sports federations in 2023.

By Sammy Heywood Okine

National Youth Boxing Team Prepares For World Championship In Croatia

Mr. Dauda Fuseni, First Vice President of the Ghana Boxing Federation (GBF) says the essence of the special amateur bouts coming up in Accra is to select the youth national team and getting them prepared for the 2024 Youth World Championship in Croatia later this year.

He told Yours Truly that after the special selection process, the best and outstanding boxers will be camped under the tutelage of coach Charles Quartey of Charles Quartey Boxing Foundation  who is the coach for the youth national team (the Black Rockets) so they could be groomed and get them well prepared for international assignments.

He said the GBF is planning to organise regular bilateral tournaments abroad for the young boxers as he believe their confidence will be built as well as getting them the needed exposure so that they can perform at bigger platforms in representing the nation.

He appealed to individuals and companies to support and sponsor the national youth boxing team.

By Sammy Heywood Okine

Nana Adu Mankatta, President of Sports For All Ghana (Keep Fit) and a member of the Sub Committee of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the 13^th African Games has disclosed that some of the Sports Federations have started camping at Cape Coast.

He said the camping facilities are ideal as the athletes and officials are in some of the best hotels.

According to him about eight federations are ready including Boxing and Athletics who are very serious about wining medals.

He thanked the Chef Du Mission, Mr. Ernest Danso and Mrs. Farida Alhassan for their support in handling the athletes in camp.

Nana Mankatta expressed that although the athletes were not called to camp at least three months to the Games, but one and a half months to the Games is better than none.

He said the sportsmen and women are happy and in high spirits.

“We have been organizing keep fit exercises for them every morning and they are responding very well. I am very hopeful Ghana will do well at the Games” he stated.

By Sammy Heywood Okine

A year after the country approved the presence of female boxers in pre-Olympic competitions, Cuba has invited two boxers, likely to be the national champions Legnis Calá (57 kg) and Yakelin Stornell (66 kg), to the event in Italy in February. Two places for Paris 2024 are at stake.

Cuba, a global boxing powerhouse, has allowed the participation of female boxers to compete in pre-Olympic competitions in 2022. Until then, women were banned from boxing. Now that the ban has been lifted, the authorities will send two boxers to the February event in Italy, where two spots for the 2024 Paris Olympics will be up for grabs.

"The idea we have is to take two athletes to the Olympic qualifiers in Italy," said the head of Cuban women's boxing, Santiago Suárez, at the Rafael Trejo Hall in Havana, which hosted the first four-day national women's boxing tournament. There, Suárez revealed that the two national champions with the best chance of qualifying are Legnis Calá (57 kg), silver medallist at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, and Yakelin Stornell (66 kg), who won bronze in the Salvadoran capital but in the 75 kg category.

It is not yet decided, but it is clear that they are in the best position to make boxing history in their country. According to the coach, the two selected boxers will leave for a training camp in Germany on 14 February and then travel to Italy, where the qualifying event will be held between 29 February and 12 March.  It will be a historic occasion for Cuba to take part in a pre-Olympic event and then, if they qualify for the Olympic Games. In Italy, 124 boxers from different countries will be competing.

Thirty-six women took part in the championship held in Cuba, the first to be held after the lifting of the ban on women's boxing. In the men's category, the country has 80 world titles and 41 Olympic titles. Now it is time for women's boxing. The aim of the national tournament was to assess the potential of 12 boxers in six Olympic divisions (50, 54, 57, 60, 66 and 75kg).

"Anything can happen in the ring," said Legnis Calá before her quarter-final fight against Venezuela's Omailyn Alcalá in the women's -57kg category at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago. These words were reported by the official website of the Olympic Games, as the Cuban boxer was set to make history. Legnis Cala could have achieved the historic qualification for Paris 2024, something that has never happened before in Cuba. She wasn't the favourite, but she was close.

Legnis Calá could have become Cuba's first female boxer at the Games. Instead, she fell short after losing a hard-fought unanimous decision to Venezuela's Omailyn Alcalá. Now she has another chance, as she can secure one of the two places available in Italy.

By Marcos Menocal Pareja 

SM Boxing Foundation in collaboration with the Ghana Boxing Federation (GBF) is organizing a special Amateur Boxing Selection Contest on Saturday 27th January at Maodak Hotel Junction (Korle –Wonko) and Sunday 28th January 2024 at the Bukom Square in Accra.

Second Vice President of the Ghana Boxing Federation, Solomon Otoo said they have to be busy always to be in shape and prepared for any opportunity so the process is to select and build the next set of boxers to form the national boxing team, the Black Bombers.

He detailed that the amateur bouts are short, but even the 2mins over 3 rounds is exhausting for the averagely fit person. Boxing is heavily aerobic and add that to the adrenalin you are overcoming, you need to possess a good fitness level. Running 5km at 20mins pace, 12 rounds of bag work, 6 rounds of skipping and 50+ press ups, 12+ wide chin ups, 3mins+ planks would all be standard fitness requirements and you’ll see fitter guys than that at this level.

Solomon Otoo appealed to boxing fans be disciplined and to come and watch the next champions of Ghana Boxing.

“We are workin hard to fly the best performers to Holland and Spain for training and other international competitions” he added.

Sponsors of the bouts include Base Pharmacy, Gold Star Airlines, Madar Soap, Twellium Industries and others.

By Sammy Heywood Okine

The Athletics season in Ghana opens this weekend with the 1st National Open Championship at the Cape Coast stadium on Friday.

Over 300 athletes nationwide are expected to compete in selected athletic disciplines in preparation for major events in the season.

Athletes who super excel may be given the opportunity to join the Africa Games pre-camping exercise.

The one-day event hosted by Ghana Athletics is one of the many calendar scheduled activities by the Federation.

Source : www.athleticsghana.com

The 2024 edition of the Captain Charity Invitational Golf Championship is set for January 26-28 at the Royal Golf Club in Kumasi.

The three-day event, which would be the seventh edition would see over 100 golfers across the country competing for very attractive prizes ranging from cash vouchers, trophies as well as medals.

With huge focus of the Captain One Kid's Project, geared towards training children from deprived areas to become golfers, this year's event would also see the Kid's Championship for the third consecutive time which would be played on Friday.

Several children from the Safe Child Advocacy Care Home in Kumasi, Mama Love Foundation at Obuasi, and the Angel of Hope Orphanage Care Home at Tarkwa as well as other groups and individuals would participate in the competition.

After the Kid's event, the professional and amateur golfers would take the center stage on Saturday for the ultimate championship and giant trophy at stake.

They would be up to challenge last year's Craig Tandoh who dethroned the 2023 winner James Akwaboah for the bragging rights.

Tandoh, pulled a huge surprise last year and would be determined to maintain his trophy and stake a claim as one of the best golfers in the country.

The main event would be held on Saturday and Sunday where distinguished golfers would be presented with their prizes.

Speaking ahead of the event, President of Captain One Golf Society, Mr Pius Ayeh Appiah said he was pleased that the event would be held for the seventh consecutive time in the country.

"I am most excited about the Kid's event which is becoming part of our annual championships as we endeavour to give hope to people in deprived communities," he stated.

The society he said, had been committed to the development of golf by engaging young people especially females and that had been growing very fast in recent years.

He added that, the last Monthly Medal ahead of the championship was held in Tema on Sunday to set the stage for the main event for the coming weekend.

He urged golfers to register and troop to the Royal Golf Club for a memorable and competitive experience geared towards impacting on the lives of deprived children across the country.

He expressed appreciation to sponsors including, Servaco PPS, Kinkubi Solutions, RK Cliste, Flo Polo Designs, Run on Time Engineering, PEEW-Williams Engineering Services, Smart Procurement and Logistics, SK Logistics and Constructions, Royal Golf Club, and Mosak Photography for their support.

Source Ken Adade

Ghana striker Inaki Williams scores to cause Barcelona’s defeat in Copa del Rey after returning from 2023 AFCON

Ghana international, Inaki Williams scored to help Athletic Club beat FC Barcelona 4-2 on Wednesday night to progress to the semi-finals of Copa del Rey.

The forward after returning to Spain after Ghana’s exit from the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament is already back in action for his team.

In the clash against Barcelona in the Copa del Rey today, he started the game from the bench but was introduced into the game at Estadio San Mames in the second half to replace Adu Ares in the 59th minute.

The forward caused a lot of trouble for the defense of Barcelona and scored his team’s third goal in the 105th minute of extra time.

In injury time of extra time, Inaki Williams set up his younger brother, Nico Williams to score to finish Barcelona as Athletic Club secured a delightful 4-2 win to advance to the semi-finals.

Gorka Guruzeta and Oihan Sancet scored the other goals for Athletic Club today while Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal netted the consolation goals for Barcelona.

FootballGhana

The participating teams for the football event (men and women) of the  African Games Accra 2023 has been finalized.

For the men’s category, the CAF Executive Committee resolved that the eight Quarterfinalists at the TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations Egypt 2023 together with the host Ghana will qualify for the event. The same age category applied during the TotalEnergies U-20 AFCON will be adopted.

The teams are: Benin, Congo, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, South Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda.  

For the women’s event, the teams that participated in the fourth qualifying rounds of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Costa Rica 2022 will qualify for the Final tournament of the African Games Accra 2023. The same age category will be applicable.

The eight teams are host Ghana, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda.

The African Games Accra 2023 will take place from 8-24 March 2024 in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

Burkina Faso and Nigeria claimed gold in the men’s and women’s event respectively at the last edition of the continental multisport event held in 2019 in Rabat, Morocco.

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CAF | Communication Department

The Black Stars' draw against Mozambique felt like not only a loss but also a bad one. Aside from its history and pedigree, the Black Stars are currently at number 66 in the FIFA rankings, and Mozambique is at 111. The Mambas of Mozambique were the superior team on the night. Now, I have overcome my partisan hurt; I must admit that Mozambique was the better team and ought to have won the match outright.

I wanted the Black Stars to win so badly that I was not a football fan on the night. I was a Black Stars supporter. I wanted the Stars to win for Ghana, for themselves, to win to put the naysayers to shame. Above all, I wanted a Black Star win to give Ghanaians something to cheer about. If I am honest, I also wanted to be able to wear my MTN Black Stars shirt a few more times during the tournament. I wanted to be able to give the "against people" the evil eye… I wanted us to win badly.

In retrospect, a loss would have only papered over the gaping cracks in Ghana's football establishment. Of course, we have been here before; we have taken every horrible result as a wake-up call. We thought we had hit the absolute nadir when we lost to Comoros. Returning from AFCON in the group stage without a single win is terrible enough, but the execrable way we conceded our goals shows that this is more a collection of individuals than a team.

As is often the case, the head coach and his technical team have paid the price. They have been sacked, but as the old saying goes, fish rots from the head. People say that the Black Stars and Ghana have been cursed. I agree with them. We must exorcise the curse or package of curses, which comprises the following afflictions: maladministration, mismanagement, corruption, selfishness, hypocrisy, and greed. Many people say that the Ghana Football Association is the biggest curse laid on our football fortunes over the past few decades. They accuse the football body of operating like a racketeering cabal interested only in its own welfare.

The GFA says it will announce a roadmap, but observers say it is an illusion to expect the people who gave us the old roadmap to provide us with a better one now. Why did they not give the better roadmap the last time? This is a ruse to stay in office and carry on the self-profiting agenda.

The Ghana football curse is real and can be tackled in the natural, touchable world. We have had several committees investigating Ghana football matters. Their recommendations have yet to be implemented, sometimes not even published. Ghana needs not a curse-removal committee but the implementation of best practices and a patriotic mindset across the entire football establishment.

The GFA has failed and must take full responsibility. The state must intervene and take the consequences. It is sad that under this football administration, the national men's team has become the butt of several unsavoury jokes, but this has gone beyond a joke. The time for action is now.

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