HARPY eagles (HE) and Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) shared the honours on the opening day of the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL)/ Guyana Amateur Boxing Association’s (GABA) Under-16 Boxing Championships which got underway yesterday at the Andrew `Six Head’ Lewis Boxing Gym, Independence Boulvard, with 10 bouts.

Both HE and FYF recorded three wins each. HE ,had five boxers on show while FYF had three, all of whom were victorious in their respective weight divisions.
The highlight of yesterday’s card however was the stunning knock-out victory registered by Pocket Rocket Boxing Gym’s  Kelon Williams who scored a nine seconds first round victory in a 115-119 pounds division  encounter against Anthony Miguel of Young Achievers (YA)
There were also several keenly contested bouts on the day’s 10-fight card, but the best was in the 85-89 pounds division where Deshon Elcock of the Essequibo Boxing Gym (ESSE) registered a close victory over Monthel Johnson of the Carrol Boxing Gym of Linden.
Other interesting bouts were the 60-64-pound division where FYF’s Orwane Harris came out on top of Jakeel Cadogan (HE), the 75-79-pound weight division which saw Shemar Bumbury (FYF) defeating Ansol Wolfe (HE) and John Moore (FYF) getting the better of Roy Samuels (HE in a 80-84-pound contest.
Other winners on yesterday’s card were  Kevin Mullin (HE) who beat Equancy Wrights (ESSE) in a 55-59-pound weight division match up; Jaimi Kellman of YA) who beat Malrick Walcott (ESSE) in the same weight division, Kevin Mullin (HE)_ who made light work of Delroy Elcock (ESSE in a 75-79-pound contest, Akiel Mounter (ESSE) who defeated Andre Waldron (ESSE) in a 133-140-pound contest and Moses Oxford who beat Mullin in a 55-59-pound weight division contest.
The  Mounter versus Waldron bout was the only final contested yesterday, while Mullin who won the first fight on the day’s card had to go back into battle for a second time due to the number of entrants in his weight division.
In the Williams versus Miguel contest, Williams went out on all cylinders hitting his target with left-right combinations which caused Miguel to retreat but Williams steped forward and caught Miguel with another left-right combination to head and a powerful left uppercut to Miguel’s mid-section, sending him crashing to the canvas.
The referee started the count but aborted it having realized that Miguel was seriously injured.
The latter was subsequently helped out of the ring since he did not catch back himself.
In the Harris versus Cadogan encounter, Harris who had a height and reach advantage used them to good effect and kept Cadogan at bay with some crisp jabs and occasional combinations to head. At times he peppered Cadogan with combinations that cadogan had no answer for.
The pattern was the same in round two, but in the third round, Cadogan, in a do or die situation traded punches with Harris but his effort was too late.
Moore in his contest against Samuels, raced across the ring from the sound of the first bell and connected to Samuels’ head with a series of combinations, but Samuels settled and the two started to feel each other out.
In round two, it was a slugfest as both boxers connected with combinations, however, subsequently, Samuels gave his opponent too much room, allowing Moore to score and counter at will, and in the end he (Samuels) paid the price.
Meanwhile, the tournament was declared open by Presidential Advisor on Enpowerment Odinga Lumumba who charged the participants to ensure they get a sound education which he said is a prerequisite to becoming a world champion.
Lumumba thanked GABA’s president Steve Ninvalle for having Guyana’s young boxers on show and encouraged him (NInvalle) to continue concentrating on the development of the GABA’s nursery programme.
Lumumba informed that the Andrew `Six Head’ Lewis gym was given to the GABA for them to use as their training centre and noted that since government made this decision he (Lumumba) has seen improvement with the gym’s upkeep.
The presidential Adviser however warned that Ninvalle must not encourage anyone with a shady character to be a part of the gym since he does not want to see or hear that illegal activities is the order of the day at the gym which was built to honour Lewis who won Guyana’s first ever world boxing title.
The tournament will conclude today at the same venue with 13 bouts beginning at 10:00hrs.