Name game

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BEIJING -- An early contender for the best name of the Beijing Olympics is featherweight boxer Prince Octopus Dzanie of Ghana.

He’s apparently not a prince of a guy, though, since, after missing some training sessions, he was briefly expelled from the national team by Roberto Ibanez Chavez, who was imported from Cuba a year ago to coach the Ghanians. Nor is he much of a boxer, apparently, given his performance in a first-round loss to Chavez’s countrymen, Idel Torriente, in a bout that was stopped several times because of problems with Dzanie’s headgear.

‘I was nervous in the beginning because this is my first time at the Olympics,’ Torriente said. ‘But then I realized I was better than him [and] I could relax and win easily.’

Ouch.

Said the Prince: ‘It was unfortunate that the headgear broke, but I wasn’t thinking about it. I was thinking about the fight.’

-- Kevin Baxter