Winfield Braithwaite C’bean Schoolboys & Juniors Boxing C/Ships Guyana win 4th successive title with 11 Gold & 2 silver, T&T finish 2nd

Aug 20, 2019 Sports

---

By Sean Devers

While a far from capacity crowd, the final night of the Winfield Braithwaite Caribbean Schoolboys & Juniors Boxing Championships on Sunday at the Cliff Anderson National Sports Hall (CASH) had the best fan support of the three nights and when the dust had settled the Guyanese did not did disappoint their vocal fans, winning Championship honours for the fourth consecutive time since this tournament was inaugurated in 2016.

Guyana finished with 11 Gold and two Silver Medals as the South Americans accumulated 30 points, while Trinidad & Tobago who brought the largest contingent finished runners-up with 12 points and two Gold Medals.
St Lucia with five points and a Gold Medal finished third, while Cayman Islands took the fourth spot with four points. Barbados, unlucky not win a Gold medal, Dominica and Grenada were the other participating nations.
Entertained by some exciting action in the Ring and pulsating music from the Fame Band Sound from South Ruimveldt, the large gathering included Mike Parris, the only Boxer from the English speaking Caribbean to win an Olympic Medal with Bronze in Moscow in 1980, Keevin Allicock, who has the best chance of emulating him, former Champion Wayne Harris, Boxing promotors Herman Harris and Seon Bristol and TV personality Allen Fenty.

The night had six International bouts and despite minor glitches like late starts and the lack of larger crowds, the tournament, staged for the first time at the Sports Hall, could be deemed a success, while Guyana’s continued success at this level was the icing on the cake for the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA).
In the first fight, St Lucian Krishone Pierre lost to Guyana’s Richard Howard in a 52kg Youth bout. Pierre was hit with a vicious upper cut in the first round which resulted in him receiving a standing 8 count and although he got in a few shots towards the end of the round, it was Howard who dominated the first stanza.
A hard body shot at the start of round two caused the Referee to administer another 8 count on Pierre who was looking aggressive, but his big swings missed their mark as Howard evaded the big shots and countered with a flurry of shots to the head and body to end another big round for the Guyanese.
Looking for a knock-out the St Lucian was caught with some wicked shots to the mid-section which sent him back peddling and he was given another 8-count.
Pierre, engaging in gamesmanship, dropping his guard and inviting Howard to come into his range and hit him but the Guyanese tried to use his jabs and survived a late rally as the St Lucian threw some big heave hoes in the dying stages of the contest.

In the second bout, Gilchris Medard used his superior height and reach advantage to jab his way to St Lucia’s only Gold Medal; winning a close fight against Guyanese Dwayne Castello in the 52kg Junior match-up.
In the opening round Castello was kept at long range by Medard’s long pawing left jabs but he soon got on the inside and peppered the St Lucian with digs to the body as he backed him up against the ropes.
In the second round Medard danced away from Castello punches and scored a few good long range shots to Castello’s head but the Guyanese counterpunched with body shots which pushed Medard back.

However, the St Lucia, cautioned a few times for turning his back on Castello, forced the 14-year-old Southpaw to fight his fight.
The final round saw Medard using his reach to good effect as Castello charged him and landed some nice combinations but most of them were taken on the gloves or shoulder of Medard.
The next bout, the only female bout on the Card, featured Guyanese Alisha Jackman and T&T’s Shirley Wolfe and watched by her Mother and elder sister Abiola who was denied the opportunity to fight due to the no-show of her opponent from Sophia, the 14-year-old Alisha charged Wolfe and hit her like a truck.
The Trini wobbled backwards and was given an 8-count before Jackman went in for kill with a five-punch combination to the body and head of her stunned opponent resulting in a second 8-count being given and when Jackman was accidently pushed to the Canvas she launched into Wolfe with a merciless attack and the Ref put a halt to the battering in 1minute, 16 seconds of the round for the shortest fight of the tournament to win her 52kg Junior Women’s battle.
In the 81+kg Junior division, 15-year-old Deshane Vousden from the Cayman Islands, built like a like a Wrestler, was no match for Emmanuel Pompey. The burly Vousden, throwing some mighty blows which missed, was caught with several hard shots and after being given two standing 8 counts in each of the two rounds he fought, the fight was stopped in the second round.

Trinidad and Tobago’s second Gold Medal of the tournament came the 57kg Juniors division, thanks to Nyrel Hosein who used his hand speed and good Boxing savvy to outbox Guyana’s Travis Inverary, who earlier in the day had beaten Grenadian Jaffer Shade who only arrived in Guyana on Saturday evening.
Inverary, a 15-year-old Southpaw, was consistently beaten to the punch by the quicker Trini in the first round.In the last fight of an entertaining night in which the Guyanese pugilists were urged on by the blowing of horns and chatting of their names, Guyana’s Patrick Harvey made light work of Juan Rodriguez; faking him with right jabs and then hitting him to the face seconds after the fake jabs.Seon Bristol read a message from former Commonwealth Gold Medallist Winfield Braithwaite who is overseas and whom the tournament is named after, while Harold ‘top gun’ Hopkinson, the Managing Director of Secure Innovations & Concepts, presented $20,000 Guyana dollars to each of the 14 Boxers who won Gold medals.
The Guyana team celebrated another Championship win by dancing and lifting their three Coaches (Sebert Blake, Lennox Daniel and Clive Atwell) above their heads, one at a time.

 

---

---