2023 African Games: Abeiku Jackson wins silver in swimming as Ghana secures 4th medal

The 23-year-old finished second in Sunday’s keenly contested Men’s 50m butterfly event at the Aquatic Centre at the Borteyman Sports Complex.

Jackson won the silver medal following his impressive time of 24.23 seconds, trailing Egypt’s Ali Khalafalla who won gold with a time of 23.93 seconds.

Abeiku Jackson wins silver medal

Jackson is currently Ghana’s national record holder for the 50m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle and 200m freestyle.

He has been representing Ghana since he was 16 and participated in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, where he narrowly missed out on qualifying for the semi-finals of the men’s 100m butterfly swimming event by just two seconds.

Meanwhile, the swimmer’s exploits also saw hosts Ghana win their fourth medal overall at the ongoing African Games following Winnifred Ntumi’s heroics earlier in the day.

Ghana scoops 4th medal at 2023 African Games

Ntumi dominated the women’s weightlifting event, winning a gold medal and two silver medals in different categories to open Ghana’s medal account.

Having secured silver in the women's 49kg snatch after earning 63 points, she followed it up with another second-place finish in the clear and jerk with 81 points.

The 21-year-old was third time lucky as she deservedly won a gold medal in the overall 49kg category with 144 points.

This comes as welcoming news to the hosts following disappointing results in other disciplines, including cycling, badminton and table tennis.

Team Ghana has suffered an early blow after being eliminated from both the men's and women’s table tennis singles events last week.

This was after none of the players who represented the host nation in the men's and women’s table tennis singles event managed to go past the round of 16 stage.

In football, however, the Black Satellites opened their African Games campaign with a goalless draw against Congo, while the Black Princesses did one better by beating Ethiopia 1-0 in their opening group game.