Female Amateur Boxers Join Security Services To Secure Their Future
In order to safe guard their future and take part in the SESSA Games, most of the nation’s female boxers are joining the security services.
The Ghana Armed Forces has benefited most with most of the boxers joining the Army.
Rahman Ablorh, Manteaw Trudy, Priscilla Toffah have all passed out into the Ghana Army, while Faruiza Osman who represented Ghana at the 2020 Olympic Qualifier at Dakar, Mariam Mohammed and Sarah Apau also getting ready to lace their boots and gloves to go for training.
Ramatu Quaye is with the Ghana Police Service based at Cape Coast until she moved to Accra after delivering.
According to Mr. Lord Acquaye, treasurer of the Ghana Boxing Authority (GBA) the female amateur boxers are not catered for adequately by the boxing clubs / gyms, so they go for the lucrative enticements from the security services who employ and award them handsome salaries.
He added that his major worry is that the female boxers do not keep long in the boxing business, as they shortly become pregnant, and getting back into the game becomes a problem.
He expressed that the future of a formidable professional depends on an experienced amateur, and lack of promotions in the female category is one of the problems that makes it difficult for the boxers to be known and attract support from the fans.
He called for support for the boxing gyms so that they can unearth and groom more female boxers.
Yarkor Chavez Annan, Ghana’s premier female boxer said boxing is an interesting sport, and urged more girls to join. She hinted that when she was at her peak, there were not many female boxers so there was no opposition excerpt Naa Amerley Turkson and Nigerian born Helen Joseph who gave her some fights before moving out to Europe.
She commended the coaches who have trained more female boxers, and even two went to the Olympic Qualifiers where one got a fourth place bronze medal.
Yarkor who has come of age said she wants to have a last bout before hanging her gloves and go into full time coaching.01⁰pi
She noted that the Security Services Sports Association (SESSA) Games can serve as a motivation to lure more female boxers and the best can represent the Black Bombers.
By Sammy Heywood Okine