STEVE Ninvalle, president of Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), is seeking the intervention of the Government of Guyana and Guyana Olympic Association, in getting the four Cuba-based boxers back to Guyana, after the Government announced last week that the country’s airports will be closed as they increase efforts to tackle the Coronavirus pandemic.

Keevin Allicock, Colin Lewis, Desmond Amsterdam and Dennis Thomas were on a prolonged training stint in Cuba, ahead of their now-cancelled Olympic Qualifiers tournament, which was scheduled for Argentina.

According to Ninvalle, the closure of the airport affected the boxers’ return and he is requesting further assistance to buffer the extended 14 days the team will have to stay in Cuba.
The GBA was left counting their losses in the millions, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) cancelled the Americas Olympic Qualifier for boxing, because of fear of spread of the coronavirus, following a move from the Government of Argentina to restrict international events in the country with immediate effect.

The Qualifier was scheduled for March 26 to April 4 in Buenos Aries, Argentina. Guyana was scheduled to send a team of five boxers and three coaches to the tournament.
The boxing tournament at Tokyo 2020 will be run by an International Olympic Committee (IOC) task force after the International Boxing Association was stripped of involvement for a series of governance issues.

The IOC Boxing Task Force (BTF) announced the decision joins the long list of events that have been cancelled because of COVID-19.
Officials now face a headache in creating a fair qualification system for all athletes, with the African event in Dakar already completed and the Asia-Oceania competition finished in Amman.

GBA president Steve Ninvalle had called the cancellation a major setback but reasoned that it was done for the safety of all involved.

With the support of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) and the Government of Guyana, GBA dispatched Keevin Allicock, Desmond Amsterdam, Colin Lewis and Dennis Thomas for a three-month trading stint in Cuba, which concluded this week.
They would have been joined by Canada-based Taveena Kum at the Qualifiers.