Ken Bediako: Ghana And The Olympic Games Atlanta 1996

Ghana once again took part in four disciplines – football, boxing, athletics and table tennis.

The football contingent was made up of Simon Addo, Richard Kingston, Joe Addo, Jacob Nettey, Afo Dodoo, Nii Ayi Welbeck, Emmanuel Osei Kuffuor, Samuel Osei Kuffuor, Christian Sabah, Felix Aboagye, C K. Akunnor, Emmanuel Duah, Prince Amoako, Augustine Arhinful, Ebenezer Hagan, Ohene Kennedy, Stephen Baidoo, Malam Yahaya.

Coaches were Sam Arday, Isaac Paha and Jones Attuquayefio.

Athletes were Emmanuel Tuffuor, Eric Nkansah, Albert Agyemang, Nathan Duah, Aziz Zakari-100m, 200m, 4x100m, Christian Nsiah 100m and 200m, Frank Mensah hurdles; Andrews Owusu Long jump; Kennedy Osei 800m; Dr Francis Dodoo triple jump; Ibrahim Hassan 200m,400m, and 4x400m, relay with, Solomon Amegatcher, Ahmed Ali and Willie Amakye.

Mercy Addy, 400m and Vida Nsiah hurdles constituted the women’s team.

The boxing squad was heavyweight Illiadi Alhassan, Welterweight Ashiaquaye Laryea; Lightwelterweight Moro Tijani and flyweight Alfred Tetteh.

The Table Tennis players were Isaac Opoku and Winfred Addy

The football team (Black Meteors) got eliminated at the quarter final stage 4-2 by Brazil in Miami on July 28.

Afo Dodoo’s own goal in the 17^th minute gave Brazil the lead but Akunnor levelled up with a powerful free kick five minutes to the recess. Felix Aboagye made it 2-1 for the Meteors in the 53rd minute heading home a good cross by Akunnor. A quick free kick by Brazil however saw them levelling up four minutes later through Ronaldo.

Suddenly the Meteors game plan collapsed and Brazil scored two quick goals in the 60th and 72nd minutes through Juninho and Bebeto to eliminate Ghana from the competition. To make matters worse, star performer Christian Sabah was sacked for a second bookable offence in the 89th minute.

Ghana: Simon Addo, Osei Kuffuor, Christian Sabah, Afo Dodoo, Joe Addo, Malam Yahaya, Nii Ayi Welbeck, Emmanuel Duah, Augustine Arhinful, Felix Aboagye and C.K Akunnor.

Earlier in the opening match in Washington on July 21 South Korea beat Ghana 1-0. Interestingly Ghana played all the football in the first half and yet went down through a penalty awarded by Australian referee Lennie Edwards in the 37th minute. Right from kick -off, it looked like Ghana would bury the Koreans but poor scoring robbed them of victory. Honestly the team showed weakness in swift counter attacks.

Ghana: Simon Addo, Osei Kuffuor, Christian Sabah, Afo Dodoo, Joe Addo, Malam Yahaya, Nii Ayi

Welbeck, Emmanuel Duah, Augustine Arhinful, Ohene Kennedy and C.K. Akunnor.

The second match on July 23 also in Washington saw Ghana beating Italy 3-2 in a tough uncompromising match. Italy scored first in the 8th minute through Marco Branco who exploited a defensive mix-up by Ghana to beat Simon Addo with a close range shot.

Christian Sabah got the equaliser for Ghana with a splendid shot in the 15th minute. Italy however regained the lead a minute to recess from a spot kick by Branco after Joe Addo fouled an opponent in the box.

Ghana happily got the equaliser in the 62nd minute when Augustine Arhinful also scored from the spot after being fouled in the vital area.

Christian Sabah easily the best player in the Ghana team, got the match-winner in the 73rd minute after receiving a neat pass from Arhinful.

Ghana Line up: Simon Addo, Osei Kuffuor, Christian Sabah, Afo Dodoo, Joe Addo, Emmanuel Duah, Prince Amoako, Eben Hagan, C K Akunnor/ Malam Yahaya, Felix Aboagye, Augustine Arhinful.

In the final group match Mexico held Ghana to a pulsating 1-1draw in Washington on July 25. The Meteors finished this match with ten men. Defender Stephen Baidoo who had come in after the recess for the injured Afo Dodoo who had dislocation of the shoulder, was red carded for rough play after only 13 minutes on the field

After a goalless first half Eben Hagan put Ghana ahead barely a minute on resumption when his seemingly harmless shot deflected off the body of Mexican defender Pavel Pardo and completely beat goalie Campos. Ten minutes later substitute defender Stephen Baidoo was sacked for pulling down a Mexican defender from behind.

Mexico had their equaliser in the 63rd minute through Jose Manuel Abungdis with a powerful header. Even though both Ghana and Korea had four points apiece, Ghana earned the quarter final berth with superior goal aggregate but were subsequently eliminated by Brazil 4-2

Ghana Line up: Simon Addo, Osei Kuffuor, Christian

Sabah, Afo Dodoo/Stephen Baidoo, Joe Addo, Emmanuel Duah, Prince Amoako, Eben Hagan, Malam Yahaya, Felix Aboagye, Augustine Arhinful.

In athletics, the quartet of Abu Duah, Albert Agyemang, Eric Nkansah and Aziz Zakari had survived the crucial semis but Eric Nkansah was injured in the process and needed to be replaced by Christian Nsiah in the final. But there was a hitch. It was pointed out to Ghanaian officials that apart from time lapse, Nsiah was technically disqualified because he had previously been substituted.

Surprisingly the Ghanaian officials ignored the disqualification rule and sent Nsiah and Co to

the pitch where in the glare of worldwide TV coverage, they delayed the start of the final race as they defiantly insisted on running the race. It was a chaotic scene and Olympic security officers had to be brought in to stop the rot before the runners

finally left the tracks in a leisurely manner much to the astonishment of the thick crowd at the Olympic stadium.

Back home an embarrassed sports Minister E.T. Mensah ordered the Chief Sports Development Officer George Dasoberi to probe the incident. Unfortunately, not much was heard about the probe except that the Chief Athletics Coach, Rose Hart; was transferred from Accra to the Western Region and she resigned in protest.

This was not the only rumpus in the athletics

Department, Fred Adongo, the marathon runner was disqualified because his time which was filed by the Ghana Amateur Athletics Association, did not match what was on the official records. Ghana submitted 2hrs 22 min 49 secs but the official records in the Olympic file read 2hrs 49mins 21 secs which was below the Olympic qualifying mark. Popular Ghanaian walker Vincent Assumang was also disqualified because it was pointed out that all that he had been doing in Ghana was demonstration event not proper competitive walking and there was nothing on record about his activities as a competitive walker.

Despite all the confusion surrounding our athletes a couple of them did well at the Games. Vida Nsiah for instance placed 6th in the women’s 100m

hurdles and her time of 18.34 secs bettered her own national record of 18.38 secs.

Frank Mensah also bettered the national record in the men’s hurdles. His time of 13.87 secs beat the old record of 13.89 secs set by Ohene Frimpong in 1972.

The individual performances were

Emmanuel Tuffuor 100m semis 10.15 secs, 200m heats 20.49secs semis 20.16 secs.

Eric Nkansah 100m heats 10.26 secs semis

10.25 secs; Albert Agyemang 200m heats first round 20.69 secs; heats second round 20.87secs. Kennedy Osei strained his groin during the final brush up for 800m and could not compete.

The bad omen for athletics started even before the Games opened when veteran athletics coach A. O.  Lawson died on his way to the Games in

Frankfurt Germany in transit to the US.  And to add confusion to disbelief 400 metres runner Mercy Addy left the Games Village after placing 6th in 54.92 secs in the heats not to be seen again.

In this case Mercy was not alone.

Heavyweight boxer Illiadi Alhassan vamoosed from the Games Village even before the opening ceremony. Rumours were that he had been lured with a promise of getting a professional contract. He left behind three colleagues flyweight Alfred Tetteh, Welterweight Ashiaquaye Laryea and Lightwelterweight Moro Tijani. Alfred Tetteh lost 10-5 to Hamid Berholi of Morocco. Tetteh was battling with weight problems days before the fight and was visibly dehydrated before he entered the ring. No wonder he lost.

Lightmiddleweight Ashiaquaye Laryea drew a bye in the first round but lost on points to Rival Cadeu of Seychelles in his first fight. Lightwelterweight Moro Tijani was not classified at all to fight.

The fact is African boxers for the Atlanta Games were picked from the African championships. Tijani was beaten in the African championships but Ghana protested he was robbed. As a compromise he was named joint bronze medallist.

With his African bronze Ghana sent him to Atlanta with the hope that he could be treated as a special case but this did not work out. Tijani was not classified at all and his name was therefore nowhere to be found.

In Table Tennis, Ghana’s top seed Isaac Opoku lost to Jan Ove Waldner of Sudan 14-21, 7-21, lost again

16-21;8-21 to Nija Lupuleska of Yugoslane and a third loss 14-21, 8-21 to Chul-Senng Lee of Korea in the Round Robin stage.

In the doubles Winfred Addy and Isaac Opoku lost to the Chinese pair Linghui Keng and Quoliang Liu 21-10;21-9, lost again to French pair of Pattick Chila and Clegouit 21-9,21-10 lost to Sweden’s Peter Karlsson and Thomas Von Scheele 21-8, 21-9.

Next episode Sydney 2000.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.