Five Ghanaian boxers for Beijing Olympic Games

LAGOS, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Five Ghanaian boxers will hoist their national flag when the boxing tournament of the Beijing Olympic Games gets underway in August, according to the News Agency of Nigeria.

The list of the Black Bombers swelled to five as three more boxers qualified from the final Africa zone qualifiers concluded in Namibia last week.

Two boxers, light flyweight Manyo Plange and middleweight AhmedSaraku had qualified previously, based on their performance at the All Africa Games held in Algiers last year.

At the tournament in Namibia, team captain, Bastir Samir won gold in the light heavyweight division to book a place on Beijing train, joining his younger brother, bantamweight, Issah Samir, who also gained gold in his category.

The list ends with light welterweight Samuel Neequaye, who fought his way to a silver medal qualification to the Olympic Games.

The surprise absentee is Awosone Yekini, a Commonwealth bronze medalist and long time member of the team, who failed to qualify.

At the last Olympic Games in Athens, Ghana failed to get a boxer to the Games as Ghanaian boxers got kicked out at the qualifying series.

The new form of the Black Bombers is attributed to good work of Cuban coach, Roberto Ibanez Chavez, who has been in charge in the last nine months.