Sydney2000: Osumanu Adama Stopped in Round Two

Men's Boxing Lt Middlewt 71kg Round 1
MARMOURI Mohamed Salah(Tunisia) beat Osumanu Adama (Ghana. Referee stopped the contest 1.35 in the second round

Daily Graphic: Ghana's boxing medal hopes at the Sydney Olympics suffered yet another jolt yesterday when light middleweight Adama Osumanu was stopped in the second round of his preliminary bout by hard-hitting Tunisian Mohamed Salah Marmouri .

The Italian referee Antonio Silvestri stepped in at the 1 min 35 sec mark to halt the pounding after Marmouri floored Osumanu with a powerful right to the head. The Ghanaian managed to stagger back to his feet but it was obvious that he had no chance of surviving his muscular opponent and his arsenal of two-fisted bombs.

The signal then went to the referee to stop the one-sided affair.

From the first bell, it was obvious the Ghanaian's only chance of staying in the fight was to use his longer reach to prevent the stocky Marmouri from getting close to unload his booming punches.

This he proved incapable of doing and by the end of the first round, it was clear that unless something dramatic happened to affect the fighting styles of the two boxers the end would come sooner than later.

And not surprisingly, it did come when the pattern continued at the start of the second round with Marmouri moving in to deliver his punishing blows ,culminating in the knockdown.

Osumanu thus not only earned the doubtful reputation of being the first boxer to actually hit the canvas before being stopped, his defeat further reduced Ghana's medal-winning chances; middleweight James Toney having bowed out without throwing a punch under rather bizarre circumstances at the pre-competition formalities.

However, as if to assure Ghanaians there is still hope of the current crop of Black Bombers reliving boxing's traditional role as the nation's number one medal winner, light welterweight Ben Neequaye proclaimed that the defeat of his colleague would be appropriately avenged today when he fights Kenya's Fredrick Kinuthia.

"Tell Ghanaians that our pledge to mine gold in Sydney still holds.. Osumanu has lost but the rest of us will carry on the search for gold and speaking for myself, I want to reassure my fellow Ghanaians that I am coming home with gold".

That would make it at least two gold medals as Raymond Narh made a similar declaration soon after outclassing Victor Ramos of East Timor within two rounds last Sunday.

Narh will have the opportunity of backing his words with action on Friday when he faces tough Ukrainian Andriv Kotelynk

Light heavyweight Charles Adamu may not have opened his mouth yet, but it is possible he would prefer to wait till after this afternoon when he takes care of Britain's Courtney Fry.