Sports
Age Flattens Poison
The poisonous hooks that catapulted David Kotei Poison to become the first and only Ghanaian boxer to have won a world crown, has been eaten up by age.That sworn enemy of boxing, flattened the former world champion, in his African lightweight final elimination bout with Bozou Azizan of Togo in Lome. He lost on points.
Poison, who won the world featherweight championship from Ruben Olivares of Mexico in September 1975 and lost it to Danny 'Little Red' Lopez in November 1976, moved to the lightweight division when he failed to make the nine stone weight.
Poison, in his early 30's, has been inactive until early this year when he lost to David Andeh of Nigeria in Lagos.
His defeat by Azizan has dealt a serious blow to his desire to come back with a bang.
Observers believe Poison's age would not aid any serious campaign in the ring and must retire honourably. Meanwhile, Bossou Azizan and David Andeh have been billed to fight for the ABU lightweight crown on October 29
Nigeria win 2 gold
The first Commonwealth Amateur Boxing Championships produced two gold medals for Nigeria even though she paraded only six out of the number required for the eleven divisions of the contest.They were the featherweight and light welterweight divisions in which Peter Kongwachie and Chris Ossai out-pointed their New Zealand opponents. Kongwachie decisioned Bill Meekan while Ossai pummelled Mike Sykes.
A third Nigerian finalist Charles Nwokolo however lost to 20 year old Scot, Tom Campbell in the welterweight division. Campbell took a lot of punishment, especially to the head and was reported to have been examined by the ringside doctor over an eyebrow injury. The split verdict was disappointing to Nwokolo who took the silver to add to the bronze he won at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane in 1982.
A fourth boxer bantamweight Joe Orewa won bronze as a losing semi finalist thereby raising Nigeria's medal haul to two gold, one silver and one bronze.
England which entered a full eleven man squad topped with five gold, Scotland with three while New Zealand and Nigeria had two gold each. Ghana, another powerful boxing Commonwealth nation did not take part.
Stars Shine
When it comes to African football, the Black Stars of Ghana are matchless.Of late, the African Champions are increasing their sphere of dominance, stepping on Asian and American soccer toes with impunity.
After a glorious campaign in South Korea, during which the Black Stars conquered Korea and the United States, the four-times African champions are taking Malaysia by storm.
The pride of Ghana opened their campaign in the 14th President Cup competition in Kualar Lumpur with a glorious 1-0 victory over the Brazilian representative team. Galloping centre forward George Alhassan grabbed the only goal of the match after a brilliant run. Last year, the Black Stars placed second to the Brazilians in the 13th championship in Malaysia.
