Puerto Rico bound boxing team leaves Saturday

Jul 14, 2010 Sports

The Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) team for the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Puerto Rico will depart these shores on Saturday morning with the aim of securing medals at the event.

The boxers go through their paces during a recent session under Terrence Poole (background centre).

The six boxers; Orlando Allicock, Devon Boatswain, Dexter Jordan, Ray Sandiford, Clevon Rock and Bert Braithwaite will be accompanied by Manager Maurice Rajkumar, Head Coach Terrence Poole and Assistant Coach Seibert Blake for the event which opens on July 22.

Kaieteur Sport caught up with GABA President, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Sport, Steve Ninvalle, and he pointed out that the entire team of fighters has received their visas and his organisation was elated. He also informed that no stone was left unturned in ensuring the boxers had top class preparation and it was now up to them to make themselves and country proud in the medal hunt.

Questioned on their preparation, Ninvalle disclosed that the coaching team did a wonderful job and Head Coach Poole had intimated that they were close to the desired position and in the remain few days work on polishing the boxers will be done.

He further intimated that GABA brought in the services of the locally renowned Nutritionist Dr. Joseph Haynes who structured a balanced diet to maximize energy. GABA affiliate Physician Dr. Benjie Singh also worked to ensure they were well prepared from a medical point of view and also were injury free.

This is the largest boxing contingent to leave Guyana for these games since 1993 and over $2M was spent. The President informed that they had to dig deep in their coffers to produce about $1.6M with the Guyana Olympic Association funding half of the required amount needed to send each person to Puerto Rico.

Ninvalle described finding the money as an uphill task but expressed much gratitude to the business community, who he noted came forward in a major way. Government, with special mention to Sports Minister Dr. Frank Anthony and Director of Sport Neil Kumar also played an integral part in aiding the accruing of the funds.

Without slighting any other discipline, Ninvalle noted that boxing stood a big chance of seeing Guyana on the medal podium and he again praised the efforts of the business sector and government in financing the effort along with the GOA.

He noted that support was crucial for success and informed that on their return from the CAC, the boxers with go straight into preparations for the Commonwealth Games in India later this year.