ALL systems are in place for the staging of the inaugural Caribbean Schoolboys, Junior, Youth and Female boxing championships which will be held on Friday and Saturday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Homestretch Avenue, starting at 18:00hrs both days.According to president of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) Steve Ninvalle, the local boxers intensified their training over the past couple of weeks and will start winding down by tomorrow.
Ninvalle said that the boxers have been engaged in weekend camps for more than a month. These camps were conducted by the GBA and supervised by a team of coaches headed by veteran amateur coach Seibert Blake and four other coaches in GBA’s Technical Director Terrence Poole, Sherdon Thomas, Clifton Moore and Floyd Grant.
The GBA head, who is a committee member on the International Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) said 31 local boxers will come up against their counterparts from St Lucia, Jamaica and Barbados.
According to Ninvalle, the St Lucia contingent is expected to arrive in Guyana tomorrow night, while the Jamaicans are expected the following day.
Ninvalle said, originally Jamaica had registered two boxers, a manager and a coach, but they have now included one more boxer in Jerome Ennis who will contest the junior category in the 69kg division.
The GBA head said this tournament is like the Open championship that Guyana hosted in 2014 and it is his hope that this Schoolboys Junior, Youth and Female championship will be an annual one.
“We in the Caribbean will do better starting from here and moving further ahead,”
Ninvalle stated.
The Guyana Schoolboys team consists of the following boxers; Dwayne Baptiste, Shaquancy Wright, Deron Williams, Travis Inverary, Leon Moore, Kevin Mullen, Junior Hyman, Shumer Hutson, Matthew Mitchell, Brian Harris, Theom Bumbury, Joel Allicock, Isiah Moore and Delroy Elcock.
Shemar Bumbury, Shaquiel Wright, Kevin Allicock, Omar Pollard, Joshua Ross, Christopher Moore, Michael Edwards, Jushua Corbin, Desan Allicock and Akiel Mounter make up the junior team, while Herman White, Duel Augustin and Quincy Boyce form the Youth team.
The females are: Akea London, Rianna Rogers and Ronddesa Boget.
There are also an `AQ’ and `B’ team.
The `A’ team comprises Isiah Moore, Christopher Moore, Quincy Boyce and Akel Mounter while the `B’ team is made up of Delroy and Desan Elcock, Jushua Corbin and Michael Edwards.