By Ken Bediako
With the dust now settled at the FIFA World Cup and Spain crowned deserving champions, let’s talk a bit about Ghana’s history at the Commonwealth Games that will showcase the 2026 edition this week in Glasgow Scotland.
There is no doubt that the just ended expanded 48 nation FIFA World Cup eclipsed many other major sports events including the recent Wimbledon Tennis in London and the upcoming Commonwealth Games.
They say better late than never so even though not much is heard of the 2026 Games taking off this week let’s refresh our memory with this piece on Ghana’s record at the big 56 nation quadrennial sports festival from the debut in 1954 to 1970 once again in Scotland
GHANA’S DEBUT IN 1954
Ghana first took part in the fifth Games in Vancouver, Canada, under the colonial name of the Gold Coast parading the empire flag of the Union Jack with the palm tree and elephant emblem.
A token team of eight male athletes and three officials led by A.K. Konuah, a long time Headmaster of Accra Academy, represented Ghana.
The athletes included Richard Ampadu, Henry Ofori Nyarko, J.K. Quartey, E.C. Nyarko, 4 x 110 yds; Willie Kwateng, 880yds and K. Agbo, long jump.
All the athletes were eliminated in the heats.
Available records indicate that J.K.Quartey was timed 50.6secs in the 440yds, both Ofori Nyarko and Quartey clocked 22.9secs in the 220yds.
CARDIFF 1958
This was Ghana’s first Games after Independence. And as if planned to mark the occasion she decided to enter one more sport–boxing in addition to athletics. The new Ghana made her presence felt on the medals table, courtesy high jumper Bob Kotei (later to become Gen. Kotei of Supreme Military Council fame) who cleared 6ft 10in to win bronze.
Other members of the athletics contingent were F.A. Owusu, 440yds and 880yds; J.A. Boamah, 880yds and 1mile; Richard Ampadu,100yds; K. Agbo, long jump and triple jump; A.O. Lawson, 100yds and 220yds; G.A. Laryea, 100yds and 220yds, R.M. Garber, high jump; Van Dyke, high jump.
Helena Quartey Papafio, 100yds and Cecilia Akowuah, 200yds were the women athletes. Even though none of the athletes survived the heats some of them recorded appreciable results.
High jumpers R.M. Garber leapt 6ft 4ins and Van Dyke cleared 6ft 3ins. Richard Ampadu clocked 10.4ssecs in the 100yds; A.O. Lawson made 22.1secs in the 220yds, J.K. Quartey was timed at 22.4secs also in the 220yds and Quartey again was clocked 50secs in the 440yds.
Female sprinter Cecilia Akowuah did not compete on medical grounds.
In boxing, all the six competitors who trained under British coach Jack Roy, failed to survive the preliminaries.
The boxers were bantamweight John Allen; featherweight Floyd Quartey; light welterweight Ike Quartey; welterweight Joseph Lartey; light middleweight Alhassan Brimah and middleweight Samuel Osei.
Available records indicate that welterweight Joseph Lartey lost to Robert Scott of Scotland and light middleweight Alhassan Brimah was beaten by Billy Brown of Wales.
PERTH 1962
Ghana’s team of fourteen athletes and eight boxers put up an astonishing performance winning three gold medals plus a Games record in athletics.
The boxers were so outstanding that six of them were on parade on the final night, two won gold and four lost grabbing silver. This grand total of two gold and four silver medals gave Ghana the enviable unofficial tag of the strongest boxing nation in the Commonwealth.
The medal winners were:
Lightweight Eddie Blay Gold; Light welterweight, Ike Quartey Gold; Flyweight Cassis Aryee, Silver; Bantamweight, Sammy Abbey-Silver; Middleweight, Thomas Arimi-Silver; Light heavyweight, Jojo Myles-Silver; Featherweight Aaron Popoola and welterweight Joe Darkey were the only early losers.
Lightweight Eddie Blay demolished Kesi Odongo of Uganda in the final to win gold in a bout which had both boxers reeling at the end. Earlier he had out-pointed Paddy Donovan of New Zealand and B. Renney of Wales. Ike Quartey won the gold by out-pointing Scotland’s Dick McTaggart.
It was a good revenge for Ike who was beaten by McTaggart in the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Ike was so pleased with his win that he collapsed in the ring. A Doctor was called and Ike was revived with smelling salts while the crowd stood stunned.
Earlier Ike had out-pointed England’s Brian Brazier in the semis. Flyweight Cassis Aryee got the silver when he lost a split points decision to Robert Mallon of Scotland in the final. Earlier Cassis had stopped M. Pye of England in the third round of their semi-final encounter. Cassis floored his opponent several times before the fight was stopped after a solid right opened the Englishman’s right eyebrow.
Bantamweight Sammy Abbey also got silver when he was out-pointed by Jeff Dynevor of Australia in the final. Earlier Sammy had out-pointed Benneywoth of England in the semis. Prior to this Abbey had made a whirlwind start by knocking out Sher Zamari of Pakistan in the third round.
He floored the Pakistani with a hard right and the referee even did not bother to count. Abbey nearly lost his pants during the fight. At one point his trunks began slipping and the bout had to be stopped so that they could be adjusted.
Middleweight Thomas Arimi lost the final to C. Colgahoum of Jamaica and light heavyweight Jojo Myles was out-pointed in the final by Tony Madigan of Australia.
In athletics, long jump, Mike Ahey did Ghana proud with a leap of 26ft 5ins to take the gold medal and with it a Games record.
Also to make Ghana proud was the men’s 4x100yds relay quartet of B.K. Mends, B.B. Bashiru, Mike Ahey and M.F. Okantey who clocked 40.6secs to share a Games record with England.
The photo finish however indicated England a shade ahead making them the gold medallists and Ghana was given the silver. This also turned out to be another first – Ghana’s first athletics silver at the Commonwealth Games.
The 4x400yds quartet of J.A. Addy, E.Q. Quartey, F.A. Owusu and J.A. Antwi won the bronze in 3mins 12.3secs.
KINGSTON 1966
The eighth Games, held in Kingston, Jamaica, from August 3–14, 1966, saw Ghana’s contingent of nine athletes and nine boxers win nine medals—five gold, two silver, and two bronze.
The boxing squad was fantastic. Seven out of the nine boxers won medals—three gold, two silver, and two bronze.
The athletics team composed six men and two women, the men won two gold medals and established new Games records in each event.
Stan Allotey won the 200-yards gold medal in a record time of 20.6 seconds, breaking the previous record of 20.9 seconds.
He had earlier equalled the old record in the heats. Indeed, the record was broken in the semi-finals, where his winning time was 20.7 seconds. Allotey then teamed up with E.C.O. Addy, B.K. Mends, and J.A. Addy to win the 110 x 4 yards relay in 39.8 seconds, shattering the previous record of 40.6 seconds, which had been jointly held by Ghana and England.
Boxing
Flyweight Sulley Shitu, welterweight Eddie Blay, and middleweight Joe Darkey were the gold medallists. Light welterweight Aaron Popoola and heavyweight Adonis Ray won silver medals, while light middleweight R.A. Okine and welterweight Amos Ajao won bronze medals.
Those who fell by the wayside were bantamweight Steve Akushie, who lost to a Kenyan after brilliantly outpointing Robert Mallen of Scotland, the 1962 Commonwealth Games flyweight gold medallist, and lightweight Jack Sennas, who was outclassed by Anthony Andah of Nigeria.
The referee stopped the latter contest in the third round because of a cut eye.
EDINBURGH 1970
Ghana sent 249 competitors in her traditional disciplines, boxing and track and field to this Games. For boxing, a full complement of eleven contestants were entered for all the weight divisions while 13 athletes including two girls were entered for the track and field events.
In the end, the squad returned home with a total of seven medals. The boxers won two gold and two bronze medals while the athletes won three silvers – with Alice Anum taking two.
Boxing:- Members of the boxing team were:- Light flyweight, Bukari Haruna
(Chico); Flyweight, Joe Destimo; Bantamweigh, Sulley Shittu-Gold; Featherweight,Steve Akushie; Lightweight, Anthony Martey; Light welterweight, Odartey Lawson – Bronze; Welterweight, E. Flash Ankude-Gold; Light middleweight, Prince Amartey; Middleweight, Joe Darkey; Light heavyweight, Victor Ativor-Bronze; Heavyweight, Adonis Ray.
Athletics: Alice Anum became the first Ghanaian female athlete to win a Commonwealth Games medal and in doing so collected the silver in both sprints, 100 and 200 metres events at the same meeting.
Ghana’s third athletics medal was won by the men’s 4 x 100m relay quartet of M.K. Ahey, J.A. Addy, E. Owusu and George Daniels who placed second in the final race to settle for the silver medal.
Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.
