So Far So Bad For Ghana At Commonwealth Games In Australia

Team Ghana's dream to go to Australia and return with at least five (5) medals is slowly crumbling and looks very impossible to happen.

Ghana's athletes traveled to Gold Coast Australia to represent Ghana at the 21^st Commonwealth Games with the hopes of winning at least five medals for the country.

So far at the games, that has not been the case. The only medal we have been able to win is a bronze medal which was won by Ghanaian boxer Jessie Lartey. The light welterweight amateur boxer lost his last fight to his Canadian opponent, Thomas Blumenfeld, losing all five rounds.

Lartey's commendable performance in the division however tied him with England's boxer, Luke Mckormack which in the end made him eligible for the bronze medal.

Ghana went to Australia with a total of seventy two (72) athletes including technical officials. The various disciplines represented by the athletes include athletics, weightlifting, para-cycling, cycling, swimming, boxing, badminton, hockey and shooting. It is unfortunate the hope to go to Gold Coast for Gold has only provided one bronze medal.

Moving away from the scarcity of medals for the Ghanaian Athletes, the Australia Visa Fraud Scandal is another downside to our participation in the commonwealth games in Gold Coast. Some fifty Ghanaians who went to Australia under fowl means has painted Ghana with shame in the face of the international community and we have once again become the centre of ridicule.

Today, news making the headlines in Ghana and beyond is the audio of the Captain of team Ghana and other athletes threatening to boycott the games and seek for asylum in Australia if the Per-Diem of the athletes are not paid today or tomorrow.

In the audio, captain of team Ghana, Botyo Nkegbe, a para-athlete and a medal hopeful for Ghana expresses how frustrated they are and angrily reveals if they are not paid moneys owed them by tomorrow, they will boycott the games and he in particular will help other athletes to run away because he has friends in Australia.

Not only has the commonwealth games caused problems in Australia, it has also caused problems down here at home where President Nana Addo yesterday suspended the minister of Youth and sport, Honorable Pius Enam Hadzide, alongside the National Sports Authority boss, Honorable Robert Sarfo Mensah.

We only hope the storms cool down as quickly as possible.

By Eric Nana Yaw Kwafo || Intern Gh Media School