Cameroonians went in for three of the six medals up for grabs on the first day of the competition on July 24, 2014.
After the euphoria, pump and pageantry of the opening ceremony of the 20th edition of the Commonwealth in Glasgow, athletes settled to real business yesterday as the competition began in earnest. There were medals up for grab in six sports disciplines yesterday. However, Cameroonian athletes went in only for the judo, weightlifting and swimming events.
It has not been a promising start from Cameroon. In weightlifting, Paul Ndicka Matam emerged fourth in the 56kg category with a total weight of 192kg after three trails. In judo, Dieudonné Nama Etoga bowed out at the quarter final after having eliminated Magagula of Switzerland and Bouchard of Canada in the rounds of 32 and 16 respectively in the men’s 66kg category in the women’s 48kg event, Marie Medza Effa was able to go only as far as the round of 16.
Tsala Tsala Bernadin was also given marching orders out of the competition by Ghana’s D. Agudoo at the round of 16. In the women’s 48kg event, Marcelle Monabang attained the quarter finals and is in contention for the bronze medal with Australia’s C. Rayner at press time yesterday. The best performance of the day came from Paule Sitchepeng who attained the semi finals in the women’s 57kg event.
The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games will see 17 sports played over 11 days by athletes from 71 nations and territories representing one third of the world’s population. Cameroon is taking part in the games in seven sports disciplines namely; athletics, boxing, swimming, judo, weightlifting, wrestling and power lifting. In all there are 62 athletes.
