Even before the bell rings for an opening round, Ghanaian Bantamweight Abraham Mensah is only one win away from leaping into the medal zone and now has chances similar to previous medalists like Wahid Omar and Jesse Lartey. Following the official competition draw three days ago, the 19-year-old drew byes in the first and second rounds which automatically placed him in the quarter-finals.

This is a huge boost for Ghana’s aspirations for this year’s event which marks a 17th appearance. Mensah could end up replicating what Samuel Takyi achieved at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, as this is his first international competition for Ghana.

Ghana’s opening day campaign

Tokyo 2020 Olympian, Shakul Samir, will push to make an impact as he comes up against Rosalba Jean Luc of Mauritius, in the light heavyweight division in the round of 32. Samed, the youngest of a family of boxing Olympians failed to progress from the first round of the Tokyo Games and will be hoping to make amends. His biggest international statement to date was the bronze medal won from the 2019 Africa Games in Rabat, Morocco.

Ghana’s only medalist from the 2018 Games in Gold Coast Australia, Jesse Lartey, who is also captain of Ghana’s contingent, drew a bye and will face Akbar Mohammed Harris of England in the second round. Lartey is also an officer of the Prisons Service in Ghana.

Light middleweight, Abdul Wahid Omar, makes his third appearance at the games with a key credential as a bronze medalist from the Glasgow 2014 edition. He was also the sole boxing Olympian at the 2016 Games in Brazil and settled for bronze a year before that at the Africa Games in Congo-Brazaville. He looks forward to replicating the feat and even better as he clashes with Jamie Devine of Isle of Man.

Dr Ornella Sathoud, Ghana’s first female boxer at the Commonwealth Games, is only two wins away from the medal zone but has Davis Kerry of England to overcome. Dr Sathoud specializes in analytical chemistry and is currently ranked 10th by AIBA and third in Africa.

Ghana boxing at the Commonwealth games

Boxing’s place as Ghana’s biggest point of pride in terms of international laurels of significance remains intact and has the potential to be further entrenched in Birmingham this year. Since Ghana started participation in the Commonwealth Games in 1954, a total of 57 medals have been won across various disciplines. Boxing stands tall amongst all other disciplines in this platform as well, accounting for as many as 32 of the medals – eight gold, 15 silver and nine bronze.

Legends of the sport have also graced the podium after Eddy Blay’s and Clement Ike Quartey’s sterling examples at the 1962 event in Perth. Quartey (elder brother of Ike Bazooka Quartey) won gold in the light welterweight division while Blay won in the lightweight division. The latter replicated his gold-winning feat at the 1966 edition in Kingston, Jamaica. Sulley Shittu also won a gold medal at the Kingston event in the flyweight division, while Joe Darkey dominated the middleweight division at the same event.

Azumah Nelson, who was to become Africa’s greatest boxer, has part of his story starting from the Edmonton edition in 1978 in the featherweight division. Azumah upon turning professional became a world champion and kept his status for a decade.

After two decades of a gold medal drought at the games for Ghana, Raymond Narh won in the featherweight division.