By Ken Bediako
The ongoing Commonwealth Games in Glasgow do not seem to attract the usual national attention. No wonder.
What do you expect when even the almighty BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)with unpararelled coverage has reportedly been denied live broadcasting rights for the first time in history.
It is learnt a private outlet has the TV rights for £5m (five million pounds sterling). Money palaver you might argue.
This move has revived worldwide concerns by purists that extreme financial considerations by global sports organisers may eventually threaten to affect patronage.
Whether you agree with this notion or not let’s continue with the history of Ghana’s healthy participation in the Games since 1954.
This week’s story covers the 1974 and 1978 editions.
CHRISTCHURCH 1974
Ghana’s contingent to the Christchurch Games in New Zealand was made up of seventeen athletes and four boxers who collected a total of one gold, three silver and five bronze.
Boxing had one silver, courtesy light welterweight Anthony Martey and the remaining medals were in athletics Triple jumper Joshua Owusu was the golden boy. His leap of 16.50m (54ft 1.60in) also beat the national record of 16.44m (53ft 9.67in) set by J.O. Amoah in 1972.
George Daniels clocked 21secs in the 200m to win Ghana’s second silver and teamed up with Ohene Karikari, Albert Lomotey and K.O. Okyir to win Ghana’s third silver in the 4x400m in 39.6secs. The gold went to Australia in 39.3secs.
The five bronze medallists were; Ohene Karikari 100m, 10.5secs; Joshua Owusu
Long jump, 7.75m (24ft 7in); M.A. Pomaney, Triple jump, 16.20m (53ft 3in); Alice Anum 200m, 22.9secs; Hannah Afriyie, Alice Anum, Rose Hart, Josephine Ocran, 4x100m (women), 44.4secs. This beat the national record of 46.47secs.
Below are some noteworthy performances:
The women’s 4x400m relay of Rose Asiedua, Hannah Afriyie, Josephine Ocran and Alice Anum clocked 3min 43.8secs to place 7th in the final and the time broke the national record of 3min 51.98secs.
Mercy Adowa was unplaced in the 1,500m but her time of 4min 31.9secs was good enough to shatter her own national record of 4min 33.2secs.
Below are some details:
Alice Anum, 100m, 4th in finals, 11.5secs; Hannah Afriyie, 100m, 6th in semis
11.9secs; Rose Hart, 100 4th in heats, 12.2secs; Rose Hart, discus, 10th 41.32m; Helena Opoku, 800m, 5th in heats, 57secs; Albert Lomotey, 200m, 6th in semis, 21.5secs; Elizabeth Bruce, 100m hurdles, 6th in heats, 14.9secs.
Boxing
Flyweight Kwao Kuleho; welterweight Flash Emma Ankudey and light middleweight Ricky Barnor were eliminated in the preliminaries.
The lone medallist, light welterweight Anthony Martey won silver when he lost to Obisia Nwakpa of Nigeria in the final.
Earlier he had beaten Kenya’s Philip Mathenge in the semi-final.
EDMONTON 1978
Ghana’s traditional contingent of athletes and boxers returned home with three medals, one gold, silver and bronze, all in boxing.
The greatest discovery was gold medallist featherweight Azumah Nelson who would later become world champion.
Azumah totally outclassed John Sechula of Zambia in the final to win gold. He had earlier stopped Sivesi Poto of Western Samoa in the second round of his first fight and out-pointed Boutin of Canada to reach the final.
The silver medal was won by heavyweight Adama Mensah who lost the final to Julius Joseph Awome of England. Adama had earlier demolished Vetolio Populi of Western Samoa in the second round of his first fight. Adama was really impressive and the Canadian press described him as “a man built like a block of flats”.
The bronze medal was won by flyweight Kid Sumaila who lost in the semi-finals to Francis Musankabala of Uganda. Scottish referee Beatie stopped the fight in 1min 24secs of the first round to save Sumaila from unnecessary punishment.
Three boxers won their first fights but faded out in the next round. The rest all lost their first fights. Light welterweight Baba Sumaila knocked out Pupert Flowers of Belize in 1min 10secs of the first round but was beaten in his second fight by Winfred Braithwaite of Guyana.
Welterweight Moro Tahiru out-pointed Molo Sanu of Western Samoa in his first fight but lost narrowly to Kenneth Beatie of Northern Ireland.
Light middleweight Mohammed Cofie stopped Wayne Derhu of Australia in the third round of his first fight but lost the second to Abdulaha Athuman of Kenya.
Those who lost outright were flyweight Peter Mensah who was beaten by Michael Landel of Kenya. This was a controversial fight. Canadian referee Bradley stopped the fight in the second round when Peter Mensah did not appear to be in any serious trouble. Ghana later lodged an official protest.
Lightweight Eric Addo lost to John McAlaster of Scotland and middleweight Kpakpo Allotey was beaten by McDonald Roddy of Canada.
Bantamweight Anthony Abacheng lost to Michael Anthony of Guyana.
In a side attraction off the pitch a local newspaper, ‘The Edmonton Sun’ gave a wrong caption in the paper’s special souvenir issue on the Commonwealth Games. The Ghana contingent dressed in traditional white adinkra, had a prominent place in the paper’s centre pages and the caption said among other things that “Ghana’s newly acquired uniforms were donated by “The Bay” an Edmonton departmental store.
After quick consultations, Mr. E.R.K. Dwemoh, then Commissioner for Sports asked general team manager Sam Okyere to protest officially to the paper. The paper later apologized for the error.
Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.
