… GBA president Ninvalle extremely disappointed

GUYANA stand to lose their Caribbean Boxing Championship (CBC) title which they secured in 2015, and successfully defended last year in Barbados, due mainly to funding for the initially proposed 13-member team of boxers.
Additionally, Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) was hoping to send two referee/judges along with four coaches to the championship which commences tomorrow in St Lucia and concludes on Saturday.

According to president of the GBA, Steve Ninvalle, the association’s efforts to solicit funds from corporate Guyana proved futile, as the response was very poor. As of yesterday, the association was able to garner only $1.2M, some $2.8M short of the budget it needed to ensure a full 13-member team, along with officials, to travel to the Eastern Caribbean Island for the championship.
Of the amount secured, the Guyana Olympic Association led the way with a $700 000 donation and the National Sports Commission contributed $300 000. The other $200 000 came from private individuals.

“I’m very, very disappointed that we would not be able to send a full complement of boxers and officials to this championship, but we’re not unique to this problem, it happened before, but what we’ll have to do this afternoon (yesterday), is select the boxers we can afford to send in a matter of priority.” Ninvalle informed.
Asked who are the priority boxers, Ninvalle said that question will have to be directed to the Association’s Technical Director, Terrence Poole, but efforts to contact Poole for an answer were futile.
However, the Guyana Olympic Association which contributed $700 000 to the GBA’s cause has asked that Guyana’s Youth Commonwealth Games silver medallist Keevin Allicock be given priority.

Ninvalle said the team will definitely be drastically reduced; a manager and coach or a manager/coach is definitely one of our priorities.
“We would have liked to send the two referee/judges who were both hoping to secure their One Star Badges, but this does not seem likely right now.” Ninvalle lamented.
According to the GBA president, the return tickets to St Lucia is $300 000 per ticket and along with that, accommodation and meals will have to be met for the three-day tournament.

Ninvalle pointed out that besides representing Guyana at the championships in St Lucia, many of the boxers who were shortlisted would have used the tournament as a warm-up for next year’s Central America and Caribbean Qualifiers scheduled for Mexico next year.
St Lucia’s Boxing Association president David `Shakes’ Christopher is quoted as saying “the entire Caribbean would be disappointed if the `power house’ (Guyana) cannot send a full team to the championship.

Among the boxers that were shortlisted were Allicock who won gold medal at last year’s championships in Barbados and Colin Lewis and Desmond Amsterdam who also won gold medals at last year’s championships.
Last year the GBA was represented by a 11-member team and of that number, 10 of the boxers won gold medals while the other secured a silver.