Liberia Ends All-African Games Clinching Four Awards in Ghana

By: W. Roland James

Liberia Sports Team in all disciplines at the just-ended All-African Games 2023 in Accra, Ghana, marked a significant strive to collect four awards in all competitions ranging from Boxing to Track and Field.

In the recently held event, the Liberian Athletic Team emerged second with Silver Medals in Women's 100 meters and 4 by 100 meters by relay finals, and third with Bronzes in the men's 4 by 100 meters relay finals and in the women's Boxing competition respectively.

Sprinting in the squad, Maia McCoy anchored the Liberia women's athletic team and displayed tactical movement clocking down 11.49 seconds to win the Silver Medal (silverware) in second place but could not easily beat Nigeria's Tobi Amusan who clinched the Gold Medal with a time of 11.0 seconds at the first place.

Also, Emmanuel Matadi in the tough race for Liberia anchoring the men's athletic in the last leg and final relay, tracked pulling his from right to left in the meters lines moving ahead of several to put Liberia at third and winning the Bronze with a combined run time of 38.73 seconds, just before Ghana at second, and Nigeria at first, with 38.41 seconds to the finished line.

Battling In the ring, Zinnah Fanhbulleh's weighty punches crossed passed Egyptain's ALY Habiba to move from quarter but dropped to Nigeria in the semi-finals to win the Bronze awards in the women's Boxing area.

In the makings, Ebony Morrison, Destiny Smith-Barnett (second leg), Shania Collins (third leg), and Maia McCoy (anchor) formed the Liberia Women's Athletic Team in the race.

While in John Sherman (first leg), Emmanuel Matadi, (second leg), Jabez Reeves, (third leg), and Joseph Fahnbulleh (anchor) were pushing the Red White, and Blue Colors for Liberia in the men's competition.

The Liberian Sports Team participating in other disciplines, like Table Tennis, Taekwondo, and Basketball among others competed but was not fortunate to pick an award in those sports areas of the continent's Olympics that featured over 30 different sports and over 5,000 athletes rivaling from 52 African Countries.

The much-attended finals in Tack and Field on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, at the University of Ghana Stadium in Legon, saw off Nigeria claiming the men's and women's championship in athletics 4 by 100 meters, while Liberia took 2nd and 3rd places with Silver and Bronze Medals in women's and men's categories.

The 13th edition of this year's All-African Games was in preparation for the 2024 World Olympics in Paris, France, and brought in several disciplines including football, boxing, Karate, swimming, athletics, badminton, cycling, tennis, table tennis, wrestling, Tennis, Table Tennis, and triathlon. Others are eSports, mixed martial arts, Sambo and Scrabble,  African sports entertainment, and Basketball, among others.

The event which concluded on Saturday, March 23, 2024, put Egypt at the top with a total medals of 189 (101 Gold, 46 Silver, 42 Bronze) while Nigeria came in second position with 120 medals (47 gold, 33 silver, and 40 bronze) from the top two highest medals winning countries.

The tournament is meant to showcase the talents of athletes across the continent with this year's edition playing out from March 8-23, 2024.

Liberia, having collected four medals in all competitions at this All-African Games, showed a bit of improvement in performance but will need to sharpen up for a better race when another edition of the tournament returns in years from now.