Sports
Ghana are solidarity champs
Ghana won three gold medals to take the boxing championship trophy in the just-ended ECOWAS Youth Solidarity Games held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.All the three-member squad of the national boxing team, the Black Bombers, had a gold medal each. Flyweight Sammy Ampiah beat Aye Wubo of Togo on points in the finals, while the referee stopped the fight in the second round to save N'Bake Diagne of Senegal from further punishment at the hands of Kofi Quaye of Ghana in their middleweight final bout.
The third boxer, light flyweight Daniel Copson, however, had his gold medal without throwing a punch. His opponent Quadraogo Saidou of Burkina Faso, surprisingly refused to answer the first bell and remained on his seat saying "I won't fight!" and Copson was declared the winner by a walkover.
Other participating nations were Guinea, Niger, Benin and Senegal.
Esbee heads writers body
The Lagos State branch of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) now has six standing committees to run its affairs, the secretary, Mr Paul Okolo has announced. The committees are the Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee and the committee responsible for Lagos State affairs.The group sports editor of the Daily Times, Mr Tunde Oshuntolu "Esbee" was named the chairman of the ethics and disciplinary committee which will have all sports editors in the state as members. Mr Oshuntolu has for many years been the national president of SWAN.
The training and seminars committee is headed by Mr Vincent Obi, an editor with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Other members are Mr Chris Ogwu, Pat Odili and Godwin Kienka. The awards committee which is headed by the editor of Sunday Punch, Mr Ayo Ositelu, also has Mr Yinka Craig and Mr Chuka Momah as members.
Grasshoppers hop to the finals
The Grasshoppers of Nigeria and the Etoile of Congo qualified for the women's final of the African Handball Championships in Rabat.The Nigerians elminated title holders and favourites A.S. Dajamo Bouke of Ivory Coast by 21-17 (half time: 8-11), while the previous runners-up, Etoile of Congo, defeated another Ivory Coast club, the A.S. Biao, by 22-16 (9-7).
Tennis queen
Ghana started the year on a bright note in sports when Harriet Quaye became the Under-14s girls singles champion in the Ninth Africa Juniors. Tennis Championships held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast from December 27 to January 1.By her achievement Harriet will represent Africa in the "Sports Goof" tournament scheduled for September in Florida, USA. Ghana placed over-all fifth in the competition in which Cameroun and Morocco won in the Boys' singles and mixed doubles respectively.
The championship, which was sponsored by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), attracted 20 African States, including Algeria, Nigeria, Libya and Zimbabwe.
Ivory Coast are Africa champs
Hosts, Ivory Coast, beat Angola 85-74 to win a bruising final of the 13th African Basketball Championship in Abidjan in front of 8,000 delirious fans.The highly-motivated Elephants profited from a series of early fouls by a nervous Angolan team to net a series of baskets and storm to an early and ultimately decisive 20-point lead and record their second African basket triumph.
SWAG honours sportsmen
The Sportswriters Association of Ghana (SWAG) has honoured outstanding sportsmen and women. Those honoured are:The late G.W. Amarteifio - Special post- humous award for his contribution to boxing and sports in general.
Azuma Nelson - Sportsman of the Year. Sekondi Hasaacas Club of the Year. • Henry Acquah - Most Promising Player. Anthony Minnoh - Referee of the Year.
George Alhassan Goal King.
Real Tamale United/Eleven Wise - Top scoring clubs.
George Sanitse - Colts Player of the Year.
• Paul Atchoe - Volleyball Star of the Year.
• Winfred Sackey - Hockey Star of the Year.
Kojo Atiso - Lawn Tennis Star of the Year.
Frank Ofori- Junior Lawn Tennis Star.
• Doris Frema Wiredu Athlete of the Year. Nana Yaw Konadu Prospect of the Year. Agatha Brago - Discovery of the Year. Ruby Aryee Handball Star of the Year. Ofei Ansah/Addae Kyenkyehene - Dedication and Valour.
National women 4×100 quartet (Doris Wiredu, Martha Appiah, Cynthia Quartey, Grace Armah). Special Award for Distinguished Performance.
Bruno fight an 'insult to Africa'
The Supreme Council for Sport in Africa (SCSA) has described the scheduled boxing bout between Britain's Frank Bruno and Gerrie Coetzee of South Africa as "an insult to Africa in general and African sportsmen in particular".Africa's governing sports body said in a letter to Britain's Minister of Sports, from Yaounde, that the planned heavyweight fight meant that it had gone back on an earlier pledge not to maintain sporting links with South Africa on the grounds of its policy of apartheid.
The Yaounde-based organisation urged the British government to cancel what it called "this shameful match" in order to conform to its state policy on apartheid. Bruno, a black, will face Coetzee, a white South African, and the World Boxing Association number one heavyweight, in London on March 4.
Zambia to host Africa '88
Zambia will host the 1988 Africa Cup of Nations' football finals, a government official has confirmed. Mary Fulano, a central committee member of the ruling United National Independence Party made the confirmation in an interview with a national daily, Times of Zambia.Host country, Burkina Faso, were second with two gold, three silver and four bronze medals, followed by Togo with two gold and one silver medals.
The two likely venues for the tournament are Lusaka Independence Stadium and Dag Hammarskjoeld Stadium in Ndola.
Fulano was quoted as saying: "The major problem which we are very much concerned with now is the state of the stadia because, up till now, they have not reached acceptable standards.
Ordia lauds Fashanu's stand
Chief Abraham Ordia, the Hon. President of the Supreme Council for Sport in Africa and Africa's most outstanding critic and activist against apartheid in sports has sent a message of congratulations to John Fashanu, the Nigerian professional footballer in Britain for refusing to play in racist South AFrica, even for the fabulous fee of more than half a million U.S. dollars.By this singular act, Fashanu has demonstrated that there are still Nigerians who put honour, racial equality, fairplay and human dignity above material reward. This is a crusade we have been fighting and continue to fight even in the face of persecution by some Western powers and, unfortunately, by some of our own people too.
Had Fashanu played in South Africa his name would have been immediately listed in the U.N. black book.
Nigeria in Davis Cup semi-finals
Nigeria qualified for the quarter-finals of the newly inaugurated Davis Cup African zone when she won both the reverse singles in straight sets to complete a 5-0 whitewash win over Tunisia in Tunis.Nduka Odizor beat Elias Bramli 6-3, 6-2 while Tony Omoh beat Jilani Buoaafa 6-0, 6-0. Nigeria will next play Senegal in March for the place in the semi-finals, the winners of which go forward to the European zone, starting in May.
