Ghana’s team of 14 athletes and eight boxers put up a good performance at the 1962 Commonwealth Games in Perth, Australia winning three gold medals plus a Games record in athletics.

The boxers were so outstanding that six of them reached the finals, two won gold and four collected 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 and Light-heavyweight Jojo Myles- silver. Featherweight Aaron Poopola and welterweight Joe Darkey were the only early losers.

Lightweight Eddie Blay demolished Kesi Odongo of Uganda in the final to win gold. Earlier he had outpointed Paddy Donovan of New Zealand and B. Renney of Wales in the preliminaries.

Ike Quartey won the gold by outpointing Scotland’s Dick McTaggart. It was a good revenge for Ike who was beaten by McTaggart in the finals of the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome.

Ike was so excited with his win that he collapsed in the ring after the verdict had been announced. A Doctor was called and Ike was revived with smelling salt while the crowd stood stunned.

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.Pyee 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 outpointed by Jeff Dynevor of Australia in the final. Earlier Sammy had outpointed 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 to put him to sleep. The referee did not even 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 to fit his waist.
Middleweight Thomas Arimi lost the final the final to C. Colgahoum of Jamaica and light heavyweight Jojo Myles was outpointed in the final by Tony Madigan of Australia.

Athletics
In athletics, long jumper Mike Ahey did Ghana proud with a leap of 26ft 5ins to take the gold medal 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 40.6 secs to share a Games record with England.

The photo finish however indicated England a shade ahead making them the gold medalists and Ghana was given the silver.  This also, turned out to be another first; Ghana’s first athletics silver at the Commonwealth Games.

The 4x440 yds quartet of J.A.Addy, E.Q.Quartey, F.A.Owusu, and J.A.Antwi won the bronze in 3 mins 12.3 secs.
Here are other non-medal winning performances of the athletes

• Mike Ahey 100yds heats 9.7secs

• Bukasri Bashiru: 100yds heats 9.8secs

• M.F.Okantey: 100yds heats 9.7 secs

• B.K.Mends: 100yds heats 9.7 secs

• M.F.Okantey: 220yds heats 21.7secs, 21.9 secs 4th in final

• J.A.Addy: 440yds semis 48.6 secs

• Ohene Akuffo: Pole Vault 12ft

• Christiana Boateng: 100yds heats 11.6 secs

• Rose Hart: 80yds hurdles heats 11.4 secs

• Victoria Chinery: 80yds hurdles heats 12.4 secs

• Christian Boateng, Rose Hart, Martha Adjei, Victoria Chinery: 4x100yds women’s relay 49 secs.

More to follow, cheers everyone and keep loving sports.