GBA overcame several challenges in 2019

Dec 31, 2019 Sports

---

Lack of funding & poor decisions by Judges tops list

By Sean Devers

This year was a challenging one for the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), but according its President Steve Ninvalle their Executives were able to overcome those challenges and are ready to move local Boxing to higher heights in 2020.

The GBA held two International competitions in comparison to the three that were held last year.
The two International competitions were the Patrick Ford Memorial and the Caribbean School Boys and Juniors…which was renamed the Winfield Braithwaite Caribbean Schoolboys and Juniors.
Apart from the name change, there was an increase from three Countries in 2016 to seven this year, while the biggest Schoolboys Boxing Card in the Caribbean also graduated to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) ‘home of Boxing’ in Guyana from the National Gymnasium where it was held for the past three years.
This year also saw Championship Cards being named after outstanding Guyanese Boxers Lennox Blackmore, Patrick Forde, Terrence Ali and Winfield Braithwaite.

“We (GBA) held all of our statutory competitions for the year and was able to hold an extended encampment for our Under-16 and Juniors who retained the Caribbean Title for a fourth consecutive time,” Ninvalle informed.
The Boxers, under the watchful eyes of Coaches Lennox Daniels, Sebert Blake and Clive Atwell, had 10 weeks of encampment. The last time Guyana failed to take Championship honours in a youth Caribbean tournament was in 2015 in Barbados despite winning 10 Gold and a Silver Medal.
The Terrence Alli National Open Boxing Championships, the last for the year by the GBA, was used to select Guyana’s team for the Caribbean Boxing

Championships which was held at the National Cycling Velodrome in Couva in Central Trinidad from December 4-9.
To crown another excellent tournament for the Soldiers, their Coach Terrence Pool was voted Best Coach, while GDF’s Clairmont Gibson won the Lightweight title and the Best Elite Boxer Award.
Mark Crawford from the Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) stopped Winston Pompey Warriors Boxing Gym’s (WPWBG) Alex Butcher in the third round to take the Junior Welterweight title to be crowned Best Youth Boxer.
The fans also saw Guyana’s most talented amateur pugilist, 20-year-old Keevin Allicock, fighting out of the FYF Gym in Albouystown, beat GDF’s Teusimar Peters.
“Guyana was dethroned as the Senior Caribbean Champions simply because we did not have a large enough team in Trinidad….hence one of the major challenges …the issue of financing of sports,” Ninvalle lamented.

Defending Champions Guyana encountered several obstacles including controversial decisions during the CBC in Trinidad.
This year’s tournament was won by host Trinidad & Tobago with Barbados finishing second and Guyana ending third.
Allicock and the Jackman sisters (Alesha and Abiola) got Gold Medals, while Mark Crawford, Dennis Thomas and Julius Chesney won Silvers Medals. Richard Howard, Kevin Hunte and Darren France captured Bronze Medals.
Poole, who performed duties of Manager, noted that there were several hurdles in the tournament for Guyana which began even before they departed Guyana for Trinidad.
“The Judging was very poor and we had to pay a protest fee of US$1,000 since the decision was so bad we felt we had to protest the result of the bout between Richard Howard and T&T’s Hosein Nyrell,” Poole said.

The results of the protest favoured the Trinidadian and Guyana lost the protest fee.
Poole informed that Guyana took a young team, many of whom fought in this year’s Schoolboys and Novice Championships.
“We only had four Senior Boxers and the youngsters would have gained exposure and experience from fighting experienced Boxers,” Poole said.
Poole said, while Allicock was expected to win a Gold Medal, he was most pleased with the Gold Medals won the Jackman siblings (Alesha and Abiola) who were attending their first ever overseas tournament.
“Even a week before the CBC started the boxers did not know if they would still be able to have a chance of defending their title because of a lack of funding for the trip,” Poole concluded.
Like Poole, Ninvalle noted that one of the bright spots in 2019 is the improvement of the Jackman sisters.
“In a short space of time they have proven that they are the best in the Caribbean in their respective category.

Another high point is Mr. Elton Chase who was successful at the AIBA International Technical Officer (ITO) exams in May in St Lucia.
Chase became the first in the history of boxing in Guyana to be certified as an ITO. Chase’s certification underlines the Association’s serious approach to the upgrading of officials,” Ninvalle said.
Within the first three months of the year Ninvalle was elected Chairman of the Caribbean Boxing Steering Committee, appointed Chairman of the AIBA Youth Commission and elected Vice President of the Americas Boxing Confederation, an unprecedented feat for anyone in the Americas.
Allicock was given the chance, with some funding from the GOA, to train in Cuba for three weeks.
Allicock qualified for the Pan Am Games but lost a dubious decision in his first fight which denied Guyana a medal.
Young Richard Howard of the Forgotten Youth Foundation Gym remains a promising fighter.
GOA President K. Juman Yassin handed over a cheque worth US$15,000 to Ninvalle to assist in facilitating a three-month training camp in Cuba for Guyana’s four Olympic Boxing hopefuls; Kevin Allicock, Desmond Amsterdam, Dennis Thomas and Colin Lewis, who are scheduled to depart Guyana on January 4.
The GOA’s contribution will assist the pugilists as they attempt to qualify for next year’s Olympic qualifiers from March 26 to April 3 in Argentina.
The 2020 Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan from July 24 to August 9.
Ninvalle informed that the GOA’s contribution was the biggest the GBA has ever had and informed the entire cost to send the team to Cuba is US$31,000.
The NSC also pledged $2.5 Million of which $1 Million has already been presented to the GBA.
Guyana’s Mike Parris remains the only Boxer from the English Speaking Caribbean to win an Olympic medal when he won Bronze in 1980 in Moscow.
Plans for 2020 includes the certification of Two Star referee judges, hosting of the first Carifta Boxing Tournament in over a decade, certification of coaches and the hosting of the fifth International Schoolboys and Juniors tournament among other plans.

 

---

---