THE Guyana and Trinidad Mutual Fire and Life Insurance Company (GTM) turned its attention to the boxing fraternity yesterday as their Marketing Representative Aneeta Shivprashad and Senior Sales Representative Ramesh Persaud made the presentation of a cheque to the treasurer of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) Dexter Patterson in the office of GABA president Steve Ninvalle.
The purpose of the cheque is to cover the travel expenses for one of the individuals on the nine-member team that will represent Guyana at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games which will be held in Puerto Rico, July 22-31.
This donation of $186 000 marks the coverage of the fifth member of the nine team members, who need other such magnanimous gestures from Corporate Guyana to make the trip to defend the Golden Arrowhead. It is very timely considering the fact that the GABA is hard-pressed to make the Guyana Olympic Association’s (GOA) fast approaching submission deadline.
The nine individuals whom GABA is sending abroad include six boxers who are Commonwealth Games silver medallist Clevon Rock, Herlando Allicock, Dexter Jordon, Devon Brathwaithe, and national flyweight Champion Ray Sandiford.
The technical members of the team are Maurice Rajkumar who is the Team Manager and Terrence Poole and Sebert Blake who are the two coaches.
Ninvalle made clear his intention of sending the entire team, saying that based upon statistics it will take the entire team to increase Guyana’s chances at procuring titles at the event and he thanked GTM for playing a part in helping to get all of the team members to the games.
The GABA president stated that this is a result of the recognition of the boxing fraternity’s accomplishments over the years. “Boxing is the only sport to give Guyana an Olympic medal and world champions, the boxers are doing things and are earning recognition,” he said.
GTM’s Aneeta Shivprashad said that her organisation was happy to lend a hand and she emphasised the fact that it is not a one-time happenstance as GTM is always giving support to local athletes.
She did, however, note that GTM is usually mostly involved with cricket as their recently concluded Under-19 championships would show. But they’ve now turned to boxing which is also seen as a sport worthy of attention.