The national amateur boxing team, the Black Bombers, continue to shine, in spite of official state neglect, dominating the narrative in discussions about the medal winning sporting disciplines at the recently-concluded Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The Bombers hauled three medals at the Birmingham Games. Bantamweight Abraham Mensah and featherweight Joseph Commey, won silver, while Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, Wahid Omar, clinched bronze in the light welterweight division, totalling their largest haul, at the Games, in recent memory.
At the centre of attention, the Bombers’ head coach, Dr Ofori Asare, who also coached featherweight Samuel Takyi to his, and Africa’s sole boxing medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics held last year, on account of the global scourge, the covid disease, has been glowing in the spotlight.
Coach Asare, born and bred in James Town, is a former boxer, taught as a juvenile by the doyen boxing coach, the late great Surpriser Sowah, the master trainer of boxing royalties, Roy Ankrah, Attuquaye Clottey (whose tutelage earned Ghana her first world boxing champion, David Kotei), Sam Ago Kotey, and Amon Kotey (a world championship bronze medalist) and F.A. Moses (a former coach of Azumah Nelson, Ghana’s sole inductee into the International Boxing Hall of Fame).
Recognition
Yet, the highly skilled coach recognises Goodwill Ambassador, Ray Quarcoo, a former president of the Ghana Amateur Boxing Federation (GABF), now known as the Ghana Boxing Federation (GBF), as the seal to the foundations of the doyen trainer, Surpriser Sowah, of Spartan Boxing repute, and former GABF president, Eddy DuPlan.
“Eddy DuPlan took me to a training course, in Italy, before Ray Quarcoo became the president.
“Then, coaching changed from diplomas and certificates to IBA Standard Coaching. Ambassador Ray Quarcoo did very well, because at the time, he was the president when I became an (IBA) Instructor.
“So, he gave me that fame, because, I think he had a little bit (of) confidence in me, giving me that opportunity,” says Asare, adding that Quarcoo’s results-oriented approach required the highest standards. Hence, Ray Quarcoo enrolling Ofori Asare and Vincent Akai Nettey, for the IBA-accredited courses, culminating in their attainment of the sole 3-Star and 2-Star lBA licences, respectively.
Performance
“Anytime we went to tournaments, and the performance was not what he thought it should be, he thought, ‘you should be able to do better’. So, he even wrote me query letters,” says coach Asare, a winning mentality he has imparted to guide his boxers to glory, in and outside the country.
“During his time, too,” continues the coach, “the president, took the junior (national) team of 12 boxers, between the ages of 14 and 16, including Wahid Omar, Azumah Mohammed, Musah Rahman Lawson, Sulemana Tetteh and Gibrine Ahmed to the world championship.
“They’d never had (the) exposure of going outside, but during Ray Quarcoo’s time, all boxers were given a chance to improve and prove themselves.
“Also, he took the Black Bombers (including Maxwell Amponsah and Frederick Lawson) to the senior world championship in Italy, and the boxer known as Akuffo Addo, to the senior world championship, in Chicago, a Beijing 2008 Olympic qualifier.
“I learned, a lot, during his time, (by) going to those competitions, being exposed.
“Also, I remember on the road to the (London) 2012 Olympics, the IBA had set up a training camp in Wales and he (Ray Quarcoo), was able to connect us to the training camp of IBA, to be trained by their elite coaches, in preparations for the 2012 Olympics. It was also a learning process for me. So, it was (during) his time that I learned more.
“So, I can say he and Eddy DuPlan (a predecessor of Ray Quarcoo) created the base, from which we’re getting all these benefits,” concludes Ofori Asare.
Benefits
Those “benefits” include Australia 2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medalist, light middleweight Jessie Lartey, and Birmingham 2022 bronze medalist, light welterweight, Wahid Omar.
Other beneficiaries, Birmingham Games’ silver medalists Abraham Mensah and Joseph Commey, popularly known as Jaguar, have declared their determination to continue to hold high the national flag for the Ghana 2023 African Games, targeting gold medals, in readiness to take the Paris 2024 Olympics by storm, to build on the success story of former Black Bomber, featherweight Samuel Takyi, who snatched Africa’s sole boxing medal at the Tokyo Olympics, held last year.
Those goals, while lofty, are attainable by the ambitious fighters, tapping into the physical, tactical, physiological, technical and psychological tutelage of the IBA instructor named Ofori Asare – a great beneficiary of the Ray Quarcoo legacy.
