Winfield Braithwaite C’bean Schoolboys C/Ships starts Friday

Aug 23, 2022 Sports

Cuban Coach back for SA C/Ships in October

By Sean Devers

Everything is in place for the Winfield Braithwaite Caribbean School Boys and Juniors Boxing tournament which is scheduled to commence on Friday in Guyana at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Francisco Roldan, Director of Sport Steve Ninvalle

This is fifth Edition of this tournament but the second with Braithwaite’s name attached to it.

The first three were named the Caribbean School Boys and Juniors Boxing tournament.

The tournament was first staged in Guyana in 2016 to find out where the Caribbean was in the Nursery of the sport and has been held every year in Guyana.

The last tournament was held in 2019 but after a hiatus of two years it is back.

Host Guyana, St Lucia, Bahamas and Trinidad and Tobago will be the Countries involved.

Braithwaite won Gold at the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Canada when he defeated James Douglas of Scotland. This was the last time a Guyanese pugilist has won a medal in the Commonwealth Games.

President of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) and Guyana’s Director of Sports Steve Ninvalle informed preparations for the Event is going well so far.

“We have encamped 18 Boxers from around the Country. We had shortlisted 30 Boxers who were in training which we reduced to 18. We had two under-16 tournaments… the first was in January and the last was held in July,” Ninvalle disclosed.

“I think we are fully prepared. Everyone is coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic so this is just a gauge of where we are. As I told the other Presidents of the Caribbean this is not about Guyana winning or anybody losing.

It’s a programme whereby we can see where we all are. Seon Bristol has been named Manager and the teams…St Lucia, Bahamas and Trinidad & Tobago… will be arriving in Guyana on Wednesday 24^th (tomorrow). On Thursday we will be having medicals and weight-in for the boxers,” informed Ninvalle.

Turning his attention to the recently concluded Commonwealth Games where Guyana failed to win a single Medal, the GBA Boss spoke about his Boxers’ performances in England.

“As it relates to the Commonwealth team I expected the Boxers to come back with a Medal with the work that the team had put-in.

When I looked at the fights in the Commonwealth Games they were very competitive… all of the fights were very close, even the one with Colin Lewis which was close up to the time when it was stopped.

We have been yearning for Medals for a long time since 2017 when Keevin (Allicock) would have won Silver at the Youth Commonwealth Games.

Our highlight at any other major International competition would have been Desmond Amsterdam winning Bronze in AMBC in April. AMBC has a different fighting style from Europe and I believe it is easier to win a medal in Europe than at the AMBC and Desmond won a Medal there.

We have to turn our sights to the South American Games in October and we have the services of Cuban boxing coach, Francisco Hernandez Roldan for those games,” concluded Ninvalle.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News