By Michael DaSilva

THE three St Lucian boxers who arrived in Guyana on Wednesday are brimming with confidence ahead of the inaugural Caribbean Schoolboys and Juniors’ tournament which boxes off this evening at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall from 18:00hrs.Speaking to Chronicle Sport yesterday at the Windjammer Hotel on Alexander Street, Kitty, Georgetown, the trio all boasted of winning their respective weight classes.
The boxers – Nathan Ferrari, Kareem Boyce and Taj Brown – disclosed that this is not their first visit to Guyana for a tournament, as they were all here last year when the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) staged the Caribbean Amateur Boxing Championships at the same venue.
However, at that tournament they all failed in their quest to win gold.
Despite that however, they all have been very hard at training for this championship since learning of it through their coach, Guyana’s Conrad Hunte, a former Guyana amateur lightweight boxer.
Hunte started a Schools amateur boxing programme in St Lucia in 2006.
That schools programme, according to Hunte, has been very successful.
Brown who still attends school in St Lucia and who will contest the welterweight division said he has always been training but on learning of the tournament three months ago, he intensified his routine and is well prepared for this weekend’s tournament.
Asked on a scale of one to ten how would he rate his chances of winning the gold medal, Brown immediately declared, “Ten”.
When Brown was here in Guyana last year for the Caribbean Development tournament, he was stopped by Barbados’ Keshan Fraser during the second round. However, Brown said he is much more prepared this time around.
Ferrari who will contest the light welterweight division lost to Guyana’s Jevon Lampkin when the two met last year in the Caribbean Development tournament, but it was really a close fight with Lampkin winning by a mere point.
Despite that loss and with Lampkin not being a part of this tournament, Ferrari is exuding confidence. He told Chronicle Sport he is not the talking type: “action speaks louder than words”.
Boyce, who drew a bye to the final at the Caribbean Development tournament last year, lost his lightweight fight against a boxer from French Guiana but he is determined to win his weight division this weekend.
“I trained very hard for this tournament and I come here to dominate and no one will prevent him from doing just that,” Boyce declared.