By Michael DaSilva

AFTER bracing hurricanes Irma and Maria, the island of St Lucia did not expect that there was another storm/hurricane coming and was awakened to the fact that `Hurricane Guyana’ was really on its way to the Eastern Caribbean state on Wednesday evening, when team Guyana won three out of three bouts on the opening night of the Caribbean Boxing Championships (CBC) which got underway in Grois Islet.,

After registering three victories on the opening night, all three finishing within the distance, the Guyanese pugilists returned to the `square jungle’ on Thursday night and registered another three victories, all three ending within the three-round distance.
It now means that the four-member boxing team have all reached the final of the tournament which concludes tonight in St Lucia.

On Thursday evening, Guyana’s Colin `Superman’ Lewis, who demolished Barbados’ Justin Edwards in their junior welterweight contest via a second-round Technical Knockout on Wednesday night, returned on Thursday and forced the referee to stop his contest against St. Lucia’s Nathan Ferreira in the second round.
Guyana’s middleweight Desmond Amsterdam (middleweight) then entered the ring and faced off with Trinidadian Mickell Joseph, but the referee was forced to stop the contest in the first round in favour of the Guyanese.

Earlier in the night, Guyana’s Joel Williamson (lightweight), who defeated Barbados’ Brandon Lee on Wednesday night and the following night (Thursday), had his contest stopped by the referee, against St Lucia’s Kareem Boyce in the second round.
It now means that the four Guyanese boxers have all secured places in the finals of the championships scheduled for tonight.

Guyana’s other boxer, bantamweight Keevin Allicock on Wednesday evening secured a TKO win against Grenada’s Neilon Cyrus..
Six stoppages after two nights of competition ended in favour of the four-man Guyana team.

For tonight’s final, Allicock who won gold at last year’s championships in Barbados will face Ajay Jones of Barbados, Lewis will square off with Jesse Jones of Barbados and Williamson will engage Michael Alexander of Trinidad and Tobago.
Amsterdam knew his opponent in the final after the second semi-final was completed last evening.

Guyana almost missed the championships due to the lack of funding and Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) president, Steve Ninvalle, explained that if it was not for the intervention of Minister of Social Cohesion with responsibility for Sport, George Norton, the team would have been smaller.
Originally, the GBA wanted to send a full team of 13 boxers, three coaches and two referee/judges, but because of funding, the association could have only sent four boxers, a coach and a referee/judge.

Ninvalle extended gratitude to Minister Norton, the National Sports Commission, the GDF and the Guyana Olympic Association for assisting the six-man team to St Lucia.
Guyana won the inaugural Caribbean Development Tourney when it was hosted here in Guyana in 2015 and made a successful defence of the championship title last year in Barbados winning 10 gold medals and one silver from an 11-member team.

All four of the boxers at this year’s championships won gold medals last year after which Allicock went on to win a silver medal at the Junior Commonwealth Games in The Bahamas earlier this year.