President of the Ghana Boxing Federation, Bernard Quartey has said that boxer Samuel Taykyi is not part of Ghana’s team for the 2024 Olympics qualifiers because they couldn’t meet his demands.
According to him, Samuel Taykyi who has been in the spotlight after winning bronze medal in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo wanted to be given a scholarship before he joins the team.
This demand according to the GBF President was after he has earlier demanded for the $20,000 given to him by President Akufo-Addo in 2021 which was meant for his development.
“Initially he came to me that he wanted to be part of the team but he came with conditionalities that if he is able to join this is what he expects the federation to do.”
“He was also demanding the money that was pledged by the president [Akufo-Addo] is $20,000 which was supposed to be used as a developmental fee for him.”
“Secondly, he demanded that before he joined the team, he should be given an Olympic Scholarship. These are the conditions he demanded but we don’t have the power to dictate it. He is welcome to join but not with conditionalities,” the GBF president told GhanaWeb.
Samuel Takyi became the third Ghanaian boxer in history to win bronze at the Olympics in 2020. The lightweight boxer who has moved up in weight can end up fighting for Ghana in the light-welterweight division should he join the team for their last qualification tournament.
The Black Bombers will travel to Dakar, Senegal for the 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers which starts on September 9, 2023.
