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Ninvalle satisfied with boxers’ performance at Olympic Qualifiers
Guyana’s Emmanuel Pompey (left) connects to Georgia’s Georgii Kushitashvili during their 92kg bout.
– Tripartite selection keeping hope alive
By Rawle Toney
Kaieteur Sports – Following the exit of all the Guyanese boxers at the World Qualifying tournament in Bangkok, Thailand, president of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), Steve Ninvalle, expressed his satisfaction with their performance.
Steve Ninvalle
While Desmond Amsterdam, Joel Williamson, and Emmanuel Pompey were eliminated early, Keevin Allicock progressed further, reaching the round of 16 in the 57kg division.
However, Allicock lost to Turkey’s Batuhan Ciftci via split decision, with the judges scoring 4-1 in favour of Ciftci.
Ninvalle noted that all is not lost for the Guyanese boxers, as they still have a chance through the Tripartite Commission allocation.
Tripartite, also known as universality, spots are reserved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and allocated by the Tripartite Commission.
The commission includes representatives from the IOC, the Association of International Federations, and the Association of National Olympic Committees (NOCs). These spots are designated for athletes from countries with little or no representation in the Games.
Chelsea Edghill became the first Guyanese to compete in table tennis at the Olympics after being selected by the IOC’s Tripartite Commission for the Tokyo Olympics.
To be eligible for a tripartite spot, a country must have averaged no more than eight athletes over the last two Summer Olympics.
The country must apply by nominating an athlete. Only athletes who participated in some form of the regular qualification process are considered.
“We would’ve made that they had the highest-possible training. My heart greaves for Keevin Allicock because I know what he has been through. I looked at the fight, I think he did well, but have to go back to that drawing board. The good thing is that most of these guys are still young as it relates to boxing,” Ninvalle told Kaieteur News.
However, Ninvalle believe that countries in CARICOM will need to work together, since no English-speaking Caribbean athlete made it to the final round of the qualifiers.
“If you look across the Caribbean; the Caribbean hasn’t been able to do well also. Trinidad and Tobago sent five boxers, even had a three-week camp in Thailand and they haven’t been able to do well,” Ninvalle said.
He added, “It tells us as a region that we need to sit and start discussing how we as a Region, not Guyana alone as country, how do we approach boxing. Maybe we can look at how cricket is in the Region, where we have higher figures, trying to determine where we go as a Region. Up to now, Michael Parris remains the only medal for CARICOM that has been won at the Olympics in boxing and that spells a bigger picture.”
He said the GBA will continue to expose their boxers, “Especially the young ones. We have started an aggressive programme for the young boxers, especially the females.”
“We now a large pool of females in boxing than we’ve ever had before and we intend to aggressively deal with that though our U16 programmes. When we have our National novice, which is in another weeks’ time, we intend to have overseas boxers to help raise the level for our local boxers,” Ninvalle noted.
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