THE Central Police Station in New Amsterdam, Berbice will be buzzing with activity tomorrow and Sunday nights, when the Guyana

Amateur Boxing Association (GABA), in collaboration with Demerara Distillers Limited’s Pepsi and Gatorade brand of drinks, hosts its second National Under-16 boxing championships.
Technical Director of GABA and national coach Terrence Poole was in the Ancient County last weekend where he met with Superintendant Clifton Hicken to fine-tune arrangements for the event that is being described by GABA’s president Steve Ninvalle as important to the future of the sport.
“We have several boxers from around the country participating in this event – from Linden, Essequibo, Berbice and of course Georgetown.
“We are very, very enthused about the Under-16 tournament, because it says that we are actually looking at our youths who are the future of tomorrow, which is more or less rather cliché; for once you don’t have a very good nursery then you cannot have a very good senior,” stated Ninvalle.
“We think that it is the only act that we more or less focus on the youth aspect of amateur boxing.”
In her brief remarks, DDL/Pepsi/Gatorade Brand Executive Alexis Langhorne said they were very impressed with the first championship that was held on the tarmac of the Andrew ‘Six Heads’ Lewis gym in Albouystown earlier this year.
“This is the second tournament we are having this year and DDL is very keen to join with the GABA to host these tournaments.
“The first of three tournaments that was held, we were very, very impressed and pleased with the way it was held. We saw very clean fights, a lot of professionalism out of the boxers that left me amazed at the level of professionalism that I saw coming out from these boxers” said Langhorne.
She added, “Like Mr Ninvalle said, if you don’t have a very good nursery, you won’t have the primary, secondary or university and at DDL. We know that we have very, very good talents here and we want to give them the opportunity to showcase that talent, so we will continue to be on board with GABA, even as we rehydrate all the boxers with our Gatorade brand of drinks.
“Over the year, we have sponsored sporting events with our Gatorade brand as we believe in providing the best for our athletes. We know how important it is to rehydrate one’s self and we will provide same throughout this tournament, while I take this opportunity to wish the GABA a successful tournament and encourage fans to come out and support our young talent.”
Ninvalle showered praise on Poole who is a former heavyweight champion in the amateur category, saying the GABA top brass could not have reached and even achieved certain things without his input, describing his services to the sport over the years as yeoman.
According to Poole, there are more boxers in the GABA’s nursery programme than the elite and come tomorrow night, over 55 young Simon Purées will be on show battling for supremacy and a place in the finals which will take place on Sunday.
Looking ahead, the GABA will be hosting an Elite boxing programme at the National Gymnasium on November 9 & 10, followed by the National Open Championships which will be held in December.
Ninvalle thanked Digicel, Guyana Police Force, Guyana Defence Force, Corwin Chase, Roy Bacchus and Eaton Cordis for their tangible support to the GABA.