Ghana participated in boxing and athletics. Even though none of the participants won a medal a couple of athletes showed a lot of promise.

Aziz Zakari the sensational discovery reached the 100m final only to crash out fifteen metres in the race cramped in both legs. He had earlier recorded 10.31 and 10.22 in the qualifying series.

Female sprinter Vida Nsiah for instance placed third in the 100m heats but set a national record of 11.18secs.The old time was 11.2secs.Vida was timed at 11.19secs in the second round and 11.37secs in the semi-finals where she placed fifth.

The men’s sprint quartet of Christian Nsiah, Kenneth Adom, Aziz Zakari and Myles Mills breezed into the semis and were a shade away into the final when anchor man Myles Mills collapsed with a hamstring injury. Ghana was then in front and ten metres away from winning. Christian Nsiah started and handed well to Kenneth Adom. By the time Aziz took over, a clear lead was being established. When Mills got the baton and shot into the lead, Ghana seemed poised for victory then Mills began to hobble badly and then fell clutching the left thigh.

Long jump medal hopeful Andrew Owusu performed poorly with a lazy jump of 14.12m.

The boxers did not fare better. In a comedy of errors, heavyweight James Toney had to be sent home for failing to weigh in. He passed the medical examination and instead of proceeding to weigh-in, he kept his weigh-in card. When officials realized the mess the draws had already been made.

It was learnt later that the Doctor who examined him before the weigh-in asked him to rest for thirty minutes and report back. Instead he went out to inform the Ghana Officials that everything was okay. After waiting for thirty minutes and no Toney the Doctor declared him medically unfit and he was therefore disqualified.

Three boxers, light heavyweight Charles Adamu, lightweight Raymond Narh and light welterweight Ben Neequaye started the championships on a good note. Adamu was workmanlike in handling Britain’s Courtney Fry.

Ben Neequaye totally outclassed Frederick Munga Kincethia of Kenya. The Kenyan made a belated attempt to turn the scales in the closing stages of the fight but Neequaye had taken a commanding lead with his piercing jabs and Raymond Narh stopped Victor Ramos of East Timor with devastating non-stop punching. The referee stopped the carnage in round two.

All three boxers however lost their next fights. Raymond Narh was out-pointed by Andriv Kotelnyk of Ukraine. Charles Adamu was not impressed against Andri Fedchouk also from Ukraine and Ben Neequaye did not appear to have the skills to tackle the southpaw stance of Mohammed Allalloa of Algeria.