Ghanaian jumpers target gold medal

Two Ghanaian triple jumpers have for the first time in Ghana’s history at the Commonwealth Games qualified for the finals of the women’s triple jump after the preliminary round of qualification at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Hampden Park, Glasgow on Monday evening.
Mathilde Boateng jumped 13.07m in Group A to qualify for the finals on her second and third attempts. Similarly, Nadia Eke, who was making her international debut appearance for the country, also jumped 13.14m on her third attempt to qualify for the finals on Tuesday, 29th July.
Meanwhile, sprinter Flings Owusu Agyapong bowed out of the women's 100m event after placing 4th in Heat 3 of the semi finals in a time of 11.68 at Hampden Park.
Flings came out of the blocks to establish an early lead before her opponents caught up with her mid-way into the race. Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown won the race in a time of 11.02, followed by Nigeria’s Gloria Asumnu in 11.25 and Canada’s Khamica Bingham in 11.32.
Flings was the only Ghanaian athlete to qualify for the semi finals on Day One of the athletics competition. She is set to compete in the 200m and 4x100m relay team later in the competition.
Elsewhere, multi talented athlete Atsu Nyamadi is on course to break his own national record in the men’s decathlon after securing 7th place in the competition with 3,909 points on the first day of the decathlon.
The 20 year old clocked a personal best in the 100m and the long jump in 11.27 and 7.36m respectively. The Wily College student is set to take part in five more events on Day three of the athletics competition and will be aiming at improving to improve his personal best and national record of 7201 pts.
Kwadwo Acheampong, Daniel Gyasi and John O’Brien bowed out of the 400m event in the Heats.
In boxing, Sulemanu Tetteh is through to the quarter finals of the men’s men's Light Fly (49kg) after a unanimous decision over his opponent from Mauritius Donovan Gerie.
The ‘Black Bombers’ captain won all three rounds with the judges scoring the bout 10:9, 10:9, 10:9. The 2012 Olympian was making his long awaited debut in the boxing competition having seen three of his colleagues qualify for the quarter finals of their respective events.
Earlier in the day, another member of the team Azumah Mohammed lost a “controversial” unanimous decision to his English opponent Scott Fitzgerald in a welterweight (69kg) round of 16 contest at the SECC Hall in Glasgow.
Despite a strong showing in the first round of the bout, two of the judges scored the round in favour of the Englishman.
Azumah was subsequently deducted a point for head-putting his opponent in the third round and it proved to be the turning point in the contest.
Team boxing still has four boxers in contention for a place in the semi finals of their respective weight category competitions.
In Swimming, Jackson Abbiw, Nana Kwabena Antwi placed fifth and sixth with a time 26.25 and 27.17 respectively in Men’s 50m freestyle Heat Three.
Another swimmer Kweku Addo also placed sixth in the Men’s 50 meter Freestyle.
Ghana made its first appearance in the sport of Shooting as Joseph Dzorvakpor and Emmanuel Koli competed in the 50m Rifle Prone Men’s qualification. Emmanuel and Joseph placed an overall 37th and 39th in the event and missed out of qualification to the next round.Prince Nyarko improved his personal best in the 85kg competition, lifting 112 in the snatch and 145 in the clean and jerk. He came 7th in Group B of the competition.