… $1M handed over, additional funding promised

THE National Sports Commission (NSC) has thrown its support behind a team of four boxers who will leave Guyana after Christmas for a three-month training stint in Cuba.
Keevin Allicock, Dennis Thomas, Desmond Amsterdam and Colin Lewis, all former or current Caribbean Boxing medal winners, are attempting to qualify for the Olympics – a feat which Guyana last achieved in 1996.

Allicock is a two-time Caribbean champion, while Amsterdam and Lewis are former Caribbean champions and Dennis Thomas a Caribbean two-time silver medallist.
President of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) Steve Ninvalle noted that the training sessions in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean Island would make the boxers as prepared as possible for the Olympic Qualifiers, which is scheduled from March 26 to April 3, 2020, in Argentina.

He also stated that the boxers would be in Cuba along with national coaches Terrence Poole (MS) and Sebert Blake for three months. A few of the boxers and the coaches are awaiting approval from Guyana Defence Force, Guyana Police Force and Guyana Power and Light.

COSTLY VENTURE
The cost for the venture is approximately US$30 000 (over G$6.2M).
In the NSC boardroom, yesterday, Director of Sport, Christopher Jones, handed over a cheque for $1M to get the process started. He noted that either in January or February a second cheque would be given to the association.

“The Government of Guyana is committed to providing the necessary support to all of the sporting disciplines.”
Ninvalle later disclosed that the NSC would be contributing a total of $2.5M to the venture, while the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) has also promised a substantial amount.

GBA Technical Director Poole was also elated with the support. “If you need good results in any sport, you have to start with investments. So, I appreciate the contribution made by the Government of Guyana very much.”

BOXING MEDAL
All parties involved were happy for the boxers and the sport as a whole and were optimistic that the venture is a step in the right direction.
Jones said that if Guyana should secure medals again at the Olympics it would be in boxing and that the NSC is aware of the part it has to play to make this a reality.
The country’s lone Olympic medal (a bronze), was won by Michael Parris at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, since then we have struggled to replicate the feat.

Ninvalle noted that reaching the Olympics is a tedious process, but he feels that with the boxers’ talents and their extra training sessions they could accomplish the task.
Poole also welcomed the lengthy training and noted that in the past, teams were prepared a few weeks prior, which hindered their performances.

According to Ninvalle, having the boxers in Cuba is a necessary step. He said that other nations have begun to step up their training and at the recently concluded Caribbean Boxing Championships in T&T it showed.
“We have seen the level of boxing that Jamaica and Trinidad and even Grenada have been producing and that is because of the fact that they have exposure.

With this (the training session), our team would be exposed every week to championship boxing in Cuba.” He added that they will be fighting and sparring amongst some of the best boxers and should return ready to take on all challengers.

Cuba is extraordinary when it comes to boxing. The country is listed as second place in the all-time Olympic medal table, having won a whopping 73 medals, 37 of which were gold.
That country also has the distinction of being the only nation with two three-time Olympic champions (Teofilo Stevenson and Félix Savón).