Sydney2000: Ghana fired up after teammate's mistake

Ghana's James Toney could have been a contender for an Olympic boxing medal rather than just a face in the crowd as two of his team mates won their first fights on Wednesday. But he is still helping motivate the team in their aim of taking a first boxing medal since 1972. Middleweight Toney was disqualified last week after officials said in a statement that he had failed his pre-tournament medical.

On Wednesday, watching light-welterweight Ben Neequaye comfortably beat Kenyan Munga Kinuthia 14-2, he said there had been nothing wrong with him but he misunderstood the doctors' orders and had not weighed in.

"I didn't understand so I was disqualified," he said.

Team manager John Sharpe, a retired lieutenant colonel who runs the Ghanaian amateur boxing association and boasts an impressive business card, said Toney had told team officials too late that he had not completed the formalities.

"I think he was too hungry to wait for 10 minutes. I think that was the problem," said Sharpe.

Cuban coach Miguel Castellanos said that, whatever the reason, "it was a stupid mistake... an unbelievable error."

Sharpe rated Toney as the team's second best boxer and said the misunderstanding had hit the others hard. But Neequaye said the remaining boxers were now determined to win something for Toney's sake: "It was a big disappointment for Ghana because we hoped he was going to take a medal. We will do it for him."

Three Ghanaians are through to the second round, with light-heavyweight Charles Adamu beating British Commonwealth Games champion Courtney Fry 16-3 on Wednesday.

Raymond Narh beat lightweight Victor Ramos, the East Timorese fighting as an independent Olympic thlete, on Sunday.

Ghana's last Olympic boxing medallist was middleweight Prince Amartey, who won a bronze in 1972.