THE French-speaking island of Guadeloupe has become the 14th nation to register for the upcoming Caribbean Development Goodwill International boxing tournament to be staged in Guyana later this month. Guadeloupe has registered a four-man team comprising two boxers and two officials. Lightweight Keshan Jacoby and light welterweight Jeremi Cointre will be accompanied to Guyana by team manager Omer Gumbs and coach Fredic Pierre.
Guadeloupe now joins Anguilla, Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, French Guiana, Grenada, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Maarten, St Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago as countries to be represented here in the last week of this month.
The tournament will run from November 26 to 29 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. Yesterday, president of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association, Steve Ninvalle, declared that it would be the largest gathering of teams in Guyana for any sport discipline, in decades.
According to Ninvalle, close to 100 boxers and over 25 officials are expected in for the grand event. “We see it as a boost for boxing, a boost for sports and a boost for tourism. I am of the opinion that it would be the largest gathering on these shores in decades,” Ninvalle said.
Barbados has registered 21 boxers and six officials. That number is the largest down to participate. Trinidad and Tobago is next in line with 19 boxers. The Barbadian team includes four juniors, four novices, six youths and seven elites.
The upcoming tournament is the second in two years that the GABA is hosting. In February last year the organisation held the inaugural Goodwill competition in which Jamaica, St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago participated.
GABA has secured the services of top AIBA referee/judge James Beckles of Trinidad and Tobago to hold a workshop with local officials, leading up to the tournament. Beckles arrives in Guyana on November 21 and will commence the workshop the following day.