Ghana’s female amateur middleweight fighter, Dr Ornella Sathoud, won gold at the 2023 USA National Women’s Boxing Championship.
The New York based PhD holder in Analytical Chemistry, eliminated San Francisco’s based 2019 Australia National Champion, Caitlin Torrington, in the semi-finals of the middleweight (75 kg) before defeating Pennsylvania’s Paris 2024 bound, Trinity Burke, for the gold medal.
She had earlier defeated former Canada national champion, Kaitlyn Clark.
Miss Sathoud, who represented Ghana at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, had less than 20 bouts during her career but she made it brilliantly in the first round of the final.
Burke came back from the deep in the second with tough punches, but the Ghanaian showed stamina in the third to win this crucial final.
She had the man with 30 years coaching experience, Jerrick Jones, in her corner and may join her to the September, 2023 Africa Olympic boxing qualifiers in Dakar-Senegal, where Ornella will make her second attempt in a bid to make history as Ghana’s first female to qualify for the Olympic Games.
Other women to join at the Dakar qualifiers may include, Janet Acquah (Flyweight), Ramatu Quaye (Bantamweight), Anatu Mohammed (Featherweight), Sarah Apew (Lightweight), Perpetual Okaijah (Welterweight) and Trudy Manteaw (Light heavyweight) among others. –Gbfmedia