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THE Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) under the astute leadership of Deputy Permanent Secretary within the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Steve Ninvalle, has recently completed a document which will serve as a four-year guide. According to Ninvalle, GABA was given a task to prepare the document, in order for their boxers to be adequately prepared for the 2016 Olympics which will be held in neighbouring Brazil in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
“Since 1996, Guyana has not been represented in the field of boxing at the Olympics and in order for us at the GABA to turn that around, we had to be better prepared than in previous times.
In order to be better prepared, we needed to have a documented plan which was done by our General Secretary Shawn Richmond, which will be handed over to Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony during the course of this week, with copies being presented to Director of Sport Neil Kumar, the Guyana Olympic Association and the Guyana Boxing Board of Control,” said Ninvalle.
He said the document should have been completed a few weeks ago, but because his association needed to make sure it was properly done, they had a delay in completing same, but as the saying goes, ‘Better late than never’.
With the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) embracing professional boxing from next year, Ninvalle said the GABA made it their duty to hand a copy to the GBBC, with whom they have been having a good working relationship over the past two years, since collectively they coordinate the monthly ProAm Friday Night Fights, a brainchild of GBBC’s president Peter Abdool.
He said the document which is a very comprehensive one, includes budget and a list of priority overseas engagements for the boxers and he believes that once the GABA follows up on the initiatives listed in the document, there is no way Guyana cannot medal at the 2016 Olympics through boxing. (Calvin Roberts)
“Since 1996, Guyana has not been represented in the field of boxing at the Olympics and in order for us at the GABA to turn that around, we had to be better prepared than in previous times.
In order to be better prepared, we needed to have a documented plan which was done by our General Secretary Shawn Richmond, which will be handed over to Minister of Sport Dr Frank Anthony during the course of this week, with copies being presented to Director of Sport Neil Kumar, the Guyana Olympic Association and the Guyana Boxing Board of Control,” said Ninvalle.
He said the document should have been completed a few weeks ago, but because his association needed to make sure it was properly done, they had a delay in completing same, but as the saying goes, ‘Better late than never’.
With the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) embracing professional boxing from next year, Ninvalle said the GABA made it their duty to hand a copy to the GBBC, with whom they have been having a good working relationship over the past two years, since collectively they coordinate the monthly ProAm Friday Night Fights, a brainchild of GBBC’s president Peter Abdool.
He said the document which is a very comprehensive one, includes budget and a list of priority overseas engagements for the boxers and he believes that once the GABA follows up on the initiatives listed in the document, there is no way Guyana cannot medal at the 2016 Olympics through boxing. (Calvin Roberts)
