Former Olympian boxer supports GBA

Jan 01, 2020 Sports

Junior Christie, who represented Guyana at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, California, USA, during a simple presentation yesterday at the Status Hotel on Croal Street, handed over gear to Guyana’s Tokyo 2020 boxing hopefuls to help them during their preparations.

Junior Christie (right) hands over one of the gear during a photo-op yesterday at Status Hotel in the presence of the other boxers heading to Cuba and Terrence Pole M.S. (left).

The gear included boxing gloves, bandages, trunks and jump ropes, while another presentation was made to the Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) boxing gym in the form of a ‘Boxing interval spar timer’.
The boxers namely, Keevin Allicock, Desmond Amsterdam, Colin ‘Superman’ Lewis and Dennis Thomas, all expressed gratitude to the former Flyweight Champion, Christie, and the timing couldn’t have been better with the quartet set to depart for a three-month training stint in Cuba that is notorious for their world class boxing training programmes.
Christie, who fought against and beat the likes of Michael Benjamin on the local scene in the 80s, noted that he always looks to support young boxers because he knows of the struggles of some athletes trying to make it in the sport.
He related during brief remarks at the presentation, that back in his time he used to walk some distance to the National Gymnasium and often used to borrow gears to train but his hard work and determination saw him emerge as one of the best in the land.
Saturday, the boxers are due to depart Cuba for the 12-week training programme which will cost the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) a hefty fee of US$31,000. However, so far, the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) has doled out US$15,000, while the National Sports Commission (NSC) has committed GY$2.5m (approx. US$12,500) but has only handed over GY$1m thus far.
The boxers will be joined by coaches Sebert Blake and Terrence Poole M.S., while Cuban Coach Francisco Roldan, who worked with Allicock in Cuba during his preparations for the Pan Am Games in Peru, will join the pair of Guyanese Coaches.
In 1996 when John Douglas competed in the men’s light heavyweight event in the Summer Olympics, it was the last time a Guyanese Boxer Qualified for the Olympics, while Guyana’s Mike Parris, who won a Bronze Medal in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, remains the only Boxer from the English Speaking Caribbean to win an Olympic Medal. (Calvin Chapman)

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