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Ghana wins four silver medals in boxing
(From Richard Avornyotse, GNA Special Correspondent in
Algiers, Algeria)
Algiers, July 22, GNA - All four members of the Black
Bombers who got to the finals of the boxing segment of the
9th All Africa Games in Algiers seemed
to have reached their point of saturation before the finals.
One after the other, the Ghanaian fighters failed to glitter
and contended themselves with silver medals.
Team coach, Roberto Ibanez Chavez said he expected at least
two gold medals and blamed the boys for lack of
concentration when it mattered most.
But even in defeat the coach praised Middleweight Ahmed
Saraku for carrying his fight to his Algerian opponent until
the final moment when the home boy got the verdict, 9-8 to
win the gold.
Saraku who was the last of the Ghanaian gladiators matched
Kassel Nabil of Algeria punch for punch in what was
undoubtedly the fight of the night and actually led to the
end of the third round.
Holding his gloves high, the young Ghanaian blocked all the
Algerian threw at him and landed some solid punches on
target but the score card credited him with only two points
at the end of the first round as against nil for the
Algerian.
The story was not different in the second round as Saraku
chased his opponent round the ring and punished him now and
then.
But there was indeed some bizarre scoring as the Algerian
earned three points in the last seconds of the round to
narrow the gap at 4-3.
The one point lead remained at the end of the third round,
with Saraku leading 7-6.
The home fans went into a vociferous chant in support of
Nabil and this appeared to have influenced the judges as the
screens showed a 9-8 win for the Algeria, who was terribly
out of gas and found it hard to remain on his feet.
Saraku was cheered wildly by the partisan Algerian fans as
he strolled across the ring applauding his own performance.
The Samir brothers, Issa and Bastir put up plucky
performances that were not good enough to give them the gold
medals.
Issa lost 6-9 to Ouradi Abdourahim also of Algeria in the
bantamweight class, while Samir lost 12-20 to Merdassi
Rached of Tunisia in the welterweight
division.
In the opening fight of the evening, the ‘fighting
computer’, light flyweight, Manyo Plange lost his rhythm to
a virus from Kenya called Southman Bilali.
The Kenyan was so dominant that there were no question marks
about the direction of the verdict, which went 24-7 in
favour of the Kenyan.
In other fights of the finals, Mechnoui of Algeria defeated
Chawke Jackson of South Africa in the flyweight division,
while Chadi Abdel of Algeria won the gold in the
featherweight class with a 23-6 verdict over.
Tunisian Seifddinne Magmeiri got the gold in the lightweight
division despite drawing 12-12 with Yasin Gaber of Egypt.
The Tunisian had forced his opponent to take a mandatory
eight count and that gave him the crown.
Light welterweight Hastiwas Bwalya of Zambia delivered the
crown to his country with a 23-9 score against Nilabiti
Herbert of Botswana and Abdul Ramadan
of Egypt put a wedge in the Algerian celebrations when he
took the light heavyweight gold with an 18-15 win over
Kassel Nabil of Algeria.
GNA
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