Tokyo 2021: with Samuel Takyi in bronze, Ghana stands out again in boxing
Ghanaian boxer Samuel Takyi at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games. REUTERS - UESLEI MARCELINO
Text by: David Kalfa Follow
3 min
Samuel Takyi finished third in the under 57 kg boxing tournament at the 2021 Games on August 3 at the Kokugikan in Tokyo.
He thus offers Ghana its first Olympic medal since 1992. He reminds above all that this West African country is one of the continent's powers in the discipline.
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From our special correspondent in Tokyo,
“
I have proven that Ghana is also boxing, that we can also win in boxing and not in football.
Samuel Takyi dreamed of winning the first Olympic gold medal in his country's history.
But he will have to settle for bronze, after his 4-1 defeat to the American Duke Ragan, this August 3, 2021 in Tokyo, in the semifinals of the Olympic Games.
The featherweight in the process brought to light the long Ghanaian tradition in this discipline.
Because of the four other medals won by Ghana at the Olympics, three were in boxing, in 1960, 1964 and 1972.
About ten professional world champions
Since then, it is especially among professionals that Ghanaians have distinguished themselves. Witness the titles of world champions won within the four major professional boxing federations (IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO) by a dozen Ghanaians, since that of David Kotey in 1975 at the featherweight of the WBC. Some of them have challenged the best, like Ike Quartey who jostled Oscar De La Hoya in 1999 in the welterweights or Joshua Clottey who faced the Filipino Manny Pacquiao in 2010 in the same division.
Today, around ten Ghanaians are among the elite of professional boxing, the second best represented African country after South Africa in the Tops 15 of the IBF, the WBA, the WBC and the WBO. And a boxer like Richard Commey, who fought (and lost) against superstar Teofimo Lopez and is about to do so again against another ring ogre, Ukrainian Vasiliy Lomachenko, continues to bring the universe to life. Noble Art.
So will Samuel Taki take the path of professionalism, like his glorious elders?
Whoever won Ghana's first Olympic medal since 1992 does not seem sure what happens next.
But he promises, whatever happens, "
to be careful, to correct [his] mistakes, not to lose any more, to learn the lessons well and to continue to win
".
His opponents have been warned: at the 2023 African Games in Ghana and the 2024 Paris Olympics, the only African boxing medalist of these 2021 Olympics could well still be there.
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