Ghana placed fourth in both the men’s 100-meter freestyle and the 4×100-meter mixed relay freestyle events to conclude the first day of the swimming tournament.
Stacey Harry of Ghana nearly missed out on a medal in the men’s 100-meter butterfly finals, finishing fourth.
Clayton Jimmie of South Africa won the gold with a commanding performance; Alexander Skinner of Namibia and Abdalla Nasr of Egypt came in second and third, respectively.
Pavel Kutashev, the coach of Ghana’s swimming team, was nevertheless pleased with his group’s performance.
“It was a good day. It wasn’t perfect, when you consider we had two 4th places, but a good day overall, he told Joy Sports.
“The bottom line is that the athletes gave everything, and that’s what makes me happy,” he added.
In the wrestling division, Team Ghana faced even more despair as all of their wrestlers were eliminated on the opening day of competition.
The most significant loss was in the men’s greco 77kg division, where Mathonya Mathayo of Kenya defeated Ghana’s Mugis Salifu 10-0 in less than two minutes during the opening round.
Leslie Addo and Ebenezer Korampong, Ghana’s lone remaining men’s doubles combination, lost badly against Jarred Elliott and Robert Summers of South Africa in the quarterfinals of badminton, capping off a very bad day for the squad.
Neither the women’s nor mixed doubles teams from Ghana made it past the Round 16 round.
Additionally, Ghana was eliminated from all singles competitions that day, with not a single Ghanaian reaching the round of 16.
