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06.11.2007 Sports News

AIBA World Championship - Bombers Finish Among Last 28

06.11.2007 LISTEN
By Daily Graphic

Ghana left the Chicago 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships among the last teams after failing to win a single one of its five fights at the Games.

The Black Bombers were named among the 28 countries which each failed to win a fight at the tournament. The list of the last 28, which includes Albania, Cameroun, Barbados, Bahrain, Bolivia, Botswana, Slovenia, Wales and The Gambia, has Zambia at bottom only for the reason of being the last in alphabetical order.

Among the list, though, Ghana and Congo DR presented the highest number of boxers - five each - while others such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (three boxers), Montenegro (three boxers), Guinea (two boxers), Austria (one boxer) and Scotland (one boxer) were all ranked above Ghana.

How other African countries such as Uganda (presented five boxers and won two of its seven total fights), Niger (presented two boxers and won one of three fights), Egypt (presented six boxers and won four of 10 fights) and Morocco (presented two boxers and won two of four fights) showed better pedigree in comparison to Ghana and this raised concerns at the Games, but officials also explain that several factors, including which opponent a boxer meets early, could decide the progress of a boxer.

The list of best teams at the championships was topped by Russia which presented a full team of 11 boxers in all 11 weight categories.

Host nation United States of America followed in second place above China, while surprise package, Italy, came in fourth place. The USA and China also presented full teams for all weight divisions, while Italy presented just six boxers for the competition.

Notable absentees from the championships were amateur boxing super power, Cuba, as well as Africa's Algeria and Nigeria.

Cuba failed to attend the competition, which was the first of three qualifying routes to next year's Olympic Games in Beijing, China, for what was widely believed to be diplomatic action, while Algeria, host of one of Africa's two remaining routes to Beijing boxing, and Nigeria appear more comfortable with the African terrain than with the difficult times in the chilly American conditions.

Story by Michael Quaye,

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