Baseball Team Wins Bronze In Johannesburg

The Ghana national baseball team put up an impressive performance to win bronze at the just-ended African Baseball Olympic qualifier in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The Ghanaian team finished behind runners-up, Nigeria, and hosts, South Africa, who won the tournament.
By winning the qualifier, South Africa have booked the sole ticket to the Olympic Games.

The South Africans won all their five matches; Nigeria won four matches, while Ghana won three games. Ghana defeated Cameroun 22-0 in the first game and went on to beat Zimbabwe 3-1 and Lesotho 12-5. Ghana, however, lost 5-13 to Nigeria and 0-15 to South Africa.

The Nigerians lost 1-19 to South Africa in the grand final.
Cameroun, Zimbabwe and Lesotho also participated in the tournament.

Ghana's technical team expressed satisfaction with the team's performance considering the low motivation, lack of support and inadequate training for the tournament.

They pleaded with government and corporate Ghana to support the team, and advocated for the establishment of a baseball league which will help the national team players to prepare on regular basis for international assignments.

They also acknowledged the support of their former Japanese coach, Tomonary Shinya, and his friends from Japan which also motivated the players to go for bronze. Before the Olympic qualifier, Ghana took part in a West African tournament in Ilorin, Nigeria.

Story by Nathaniel Attoh