T he Golden Arms, Ghana’s national armwrestling team, confir med their status as continental giants in the sport after sweeping 132 medals at the just ended 12th Africa Armwrestling Championship hosted in Ghana at the GNAT Hall.
In the face of a stern challenge from armwrestling powerhouses like Nigeria and Egypt, the Ghanaians put up a spirited performance to invoke the ‘host and win’ spirit in the team, culminating in the clean sweep.
T he 132 medals won over two days (Friday and Saturday) consist of 47 g old medals, 55 silver medals and 30 bronze medals; accruing a total of 1088 points to emerge overall winners of the games.
The team’s feat marked a sharp improvement upon their performance in the previous edition of the games in Lagos Nigeria, where they garnered a total of 45 medals made up of 18 gold medals, 22 silver and five bronze medals.
That earned them a third position on the log behind the host, Nigeria, with 27 gold medals and Egypt with 24 gold medals.
Facing a similar opposition in the next edition, the team, according to the Ghana Armwrestling Federation (GAF) President, Mr Charles Osei Asibey, set an audacious target to upset the two nations.
“It was a difficult challenge for Team Ghana, faced with overcoming the best countries on the continent and the quest to make the ‘host and win’ mantra meaningful to home fans, but we have achieved that after long periods of training,” he told the Times Sports after the games.
Mr Asibey described the feat as historic considering the number of medals won and restricting Nigeria and Egypt to a few of the medals.
Apart from the team success, there was an individual feat for Grace Mintah who snatched a ticket to represent Ghana at the World Combat Games to be held in Riyad, Saudi Arabia.
Rachael Lankai and Alberta Ampomah, however, missed that oppor tunity after losing their 55kg and 90kg class battles to Nigeria’s Mauzi Zaanu and Olubisi Oyewusi, respectively.
The Pharoahs of Egypt came second with 25 gold medals four silver and no bronze, accumulating 282 points and followed by Nigeria in third position with 10 gold, nine silver and 14 bronze medals.
Over 100 pullers from 14 countries battled in the junior, youth, senior, master, and disabled divisions for both men and women in a total of 50 bodyweight categories.
The competition served as a qualifying event for the 2023 Africa Games to be held in Ghana, and the World Combat Games, scheduled for Saudi Arabia.
BY ANDREW NORTEY
