Hearts pay one million cedis winning bonus
From Evans Owusu GRi Correspondence in Manchester
Manchester (London) 31 July 202-Two Ghanaians, Emmanuel Kodjo Nartey and Alex Amoako Mensah lost their bids to win medals for the country when they lost their preliminary judo bout at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in Manchester.
Nartey, fighting in the 60kg division, lost to scottish D. Somerville while Amoako was defeated by Seychelles F. Labrosse in the same division. Ghana, which presented four candidates in judo now has S.K. Mensah Ahianor and David B. Agbugbuah remaining who do battle on Wednesday in the 73kg and 81kg, respectively.
In other bouts, Mauritius W. Collet defeated G. Kunda from Zambia and Cameroon's J.C. Cameroun won over A.M. Mzale of Tanzania all at 60kg. In the same division G. Cole of Wales beat Cyprus T. Mandrides while Serrano from Australia edged out Northern Ireland's S. Vickers.
In athletics, World record holder Colin Jackson was beaten to second place by South Africa’s Shaun Bownes in the 110m hurdles with third place going to
Jamaica's Maurice Wignall. Namibia's Frankie Fredericks kept his championship position intact when he run 20.06sec which was below the 19.97 sec record he set in 1994. England's Marlon Devonish and Darren Campel were second and third with Ghana's Aziz Zakari coming fifth after Demerite Dominic of the Bahamas.
South Africa's Mulaudzi Mbulaeni was winner of gold in the men's 800m in a time of 1:46:57 in a race that found former champion Japhet Kimutai of Kenya trailing at a distance fifth. Another Kenyan Joseph Mutua and Australian Kris McCarthy were second and third.
The men's 400m hurdles had England's Chris Rawlinson taking gold in a time of 49.14 sec while Elias Matthew (49.28) of Wales and Ian Weakly from Jamaica (49.69) were second and third.
In the women's javelin throw finals, Laverne Eve of the Bahamas came first with second and third going to Australia's Cecilia Mcintosh and England's Kelly Morgan in that order.
Beatrice Faumuina from New Zealand won gold with a throw of 60.83m in the women's discuss. India's Jaswant Singh and England's Shelley Newman won silver and bronze respectively, throwing 58.49m and 58.13m.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 31 July 2002- All eight seeded players at the International Tennis Federation (ITF) Men's West Africa Masters Satellite Tournament taking place at the Accra Sports Stadium Tennis Court made it safely into the second round at the end of the first round matches on Tuesday.
Gunther Darkey, Ghana and Tournament's number one seed made easy work of Adenumi Adenji from Nigeria, winning the first set 6-2 before his opponent got injured and retired, trailing 4-0 in the second set. Gunther thus becomes the only Ghanaian left in the tournament, following the defeat of Kwasi Ahinkora and Patrick Nortey.
Ahinkora was beaten in two straight sets, 2-6, 3-6 by seventh seeded Matwe Middelkoop from the Netherlands whiles Britain's Justin Layne handed Nortey a similar fate with a 6-1, 6-2 demolition. Gunther's booming serves and powerful ground-strokes, worked perfectly on his Nigerian opponent whose mobility was restricted as his knee was being heavily protected by a knee cap.
A win was a matter of course as Gunther broke him in the fourth and eighth games to take the set. The second was much easier as the Ghanaian broke his opponent twice in the second and fourth games before the Nigerian retired with a muscle pull.
In other matches, Number two seed Mohamed Drame of France eased through with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Tanzania's Ronnie Rugimbana whiles third seed Claude N'Goran from Cote de I'vorie beat Russia's Alexei Filenkov 6-1, 6-1.
Number four-seed Johan Du Randt from South Africa beat Sunday Maku from Nigeria 6-3, 7-6(7-5), Britain's Chris Lewis, seeded sixth defeated Toyin Dairo from Nigeria 6-4, 6-4.
Number eight seed Andrew Andersson from South Africa accounted for Ben Haran from Britain in a 7-6(7-4), 6-2 whiles Czech Republic's Josef Nesticy completed the first round matches with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over Remco Pondman from the Netherland.
In the doubles, Gunther partnered Henry Adjei-Darko to beat another Ghanaian pair of Quincy Adjei-Darko and Fred Egyir 6-3, 6-4. Another Ghanaian pair of Daniel Fumi and Daniel Agykum were beaten 1-6, 1-6 by Middelkoop and Pondman. The competition continues on Wednesday with the second round matches.
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Accra (Greater Accra) 31 July 2002- Champion club Accra Hearts of Oak pays a winning bonus of one million cedis to each player when they win difficult matches. Mr Tommy Okine Chief Executive of the club told the GNA Sports on Wednesday that the big bonus is management's way rewarding the players whose contributions make or mar the greatness of the team.
He said the one million cedis winning bonus is determined by the strength of the opposition and the circumstances under which a particularly match is played, adding that a win over Kotoko justifies such payment.
Mr Okine said When Hearts drew with Kotoko in Kumasi in a 15th week fixture, management considered their performance par excellence and paid them one million cedis bonuses in order to motivate them sufficiently to conquer all opposition during the rest of the league.
The Chief Executive said the trump card of his administration is motivation of players and "for that reason we pay them 600,000 cedis each when they win a home match and 700,000 cedis each when they win an away match.
He said members of the management team do not depend only on gate proceeds to prosecute their programmes but commit their own resources to the cause of the team as their primary objective is to make Hearts the Super Champions of Africa once more.
Mr Okine said it is the wish of his administration to cultivate a cordial relationship with every team in the country as a way of eliminating violence from the sport but that would not make them surrender points to any team in the name of cordial relationship.
"Hearts is a peace loving team and every body who loves peace is a friend to Hearts but when we meet on the field we shall not lose matches because of friendship," he said.
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