Black Rockets bag 3 gold medals at African Youth Championships
All three boxers of the national youth boxing team, Black Rockets, are returning with gold medals and third place trophy from the 2025 African Youth Boxing Championships which ended in Conakry, Guinea last Saturday.
51 kg campaigner Mathias Ashitey, George Nii Nortey Dowuona (54 kg) and Desmond Pappoe in the 75 kg category all emerged champions at the unusual round robin tournament which took centrestage from last Tuesday, May 20 to Saturday, May 24.
It was preceded by the African Boxing Confederation (AfBC) and IBA referee/judges, coaches and technical officer courses which also certified various professionals from across the continent.
Led by susbstantive assistant coach of the team, Joseph Martey, the three young stars re-wrote the record books as the most successful Ghanaian team of all time at any international competition following their 100 per cent success return in Guinea.
Team Ghana also took overall third place behind Tunisia and South Africa who had more boxers representing at the one-week tournament that featured a paltry 46 boxers from just 7 of AfBC's 54 affiliated countries.
Mathias Ashitey who turned 18 during the one-week tournament, was the first to secure top spot in his weight divsion for Ghana after knocking out Mbulelo Kotha last Friday to emerge the 51 kg division champion, winning all 3 fights.
Eighteen-year-old George Nii Nortey Dowuona overcame the scare of Yidnrkachew Korabza of Ethiopia after going down in round 2 of the 54 kg finale last Saturday, but came back strongly to return the favour in the 3rd round to seal his own success in the category.
On the same night, Desmond Pappoe, who turns 18 on June 1 sealed his 4th win in as many fights in Conakry by outclassing before stopping Mighty Sangoni of South Africa in the 75kg division.
"I feel good and proud because this is the first time I've led a team to a competition outside Ghana and we won 3 gold medals," Coach Martey told Graphic Sports via a video call from Conakry.
"I'm proud of the boys, they are good and pay attention to instructions. We must invest more to give them better preparations and they will achieve great things for Ghana," he appealed.
Young Ashitey, on behalf of his teammates who were also on the video call, thanked Ghanaians for their support and pledged to continue working hard with eyes set on Dakar 2026 Youth Olympics success.
"Massive thanks to our fans and all those who have been praying for us, we are grateful. We are hungrier than before to achieve more for Ghana and all we ask for is support," Ashitey said.
