GOC President promises excellent training camp in Inawashiro for Black Bombers ahead of Tokyo Games

Ghana’s Amateur boxing team the Black Bombers will spend four weeks in Japan’s Eastern Pacific Coastal city of Inawashiro before moving to the Olympics Games village, according to the President of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), Mr Ben Nunoo Mensah.

This will follow two stages of training camps in Ghana.

With 96 days more for the biggest sports festival to be held without spectators, the Ghana Olympic Committee is pulling its resources together and collaborating with sponsors and the Ghana Amateur Boxing Federation to ensure hindrance-free participation.

The Black Bombers are currently on a non-residential camping whereby they come from home to train at the Accra Sports Stadium (D.G. Hathiramani Hall).

Mr George Lamptey, President of the Ghana Amateur Boxing Federation (GABF) says all is well with the non-residential as the boxers are self-motivated and ready to make names for themselves. He revealed his satisfaction for the preparations so far and thanked the GOC for their support and inspiration.

He said the team has three stages of the training, which are expected to prepare the team for the games. The first, which is daily non-residential camping, is being strictly supervised by head coach Ofori Asare who has made four appearances at the Olympics.

The second will be an intensive residential camping at Sogakope which will involve surveillance of the training.

With the safety of the boxers and officials in mind, the GOC has assured that they would be tested and provided all safety materials and information, while their movement would be controlled to stop any possible covid-19 infections.

The third and final stage will be a one month camp in Dr Hideyo Nogouchi’s hometown of Inawashiro ahead of the games. Dr Nougouchi is a Japanese bacteriologist whose life and work in Ghana led to the discovery of the Yellow Fellow vaccine. The main medical research centre at the University of Ghana was named after him to honour his memory and impactful work.

Skipper Suleman Tetteh a flyweight and 2012 Olympian, featherweight Samuel Takyi, and light heavyweight Shakul Samir have promised to return home with medals.

According to Coach Asare, there are two more boxers hoping to make it to the games when the final rankings are released. Female boxer, Dr Ornella Sathoud, a specialist in analytical chemistry hoping to be Ghana’s first female boxer to make it to the Olympics and Jessie Lartey who won Ghana’s only bronze medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.