… World 19 ranked Bantamweight boxer added to Olympic Solidarity Scholarship

WORTH US$500 per month, Keevin Allicock, touted as one of Guyana’s Olympic medal hopefuls, will be the beneficiary of the Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) Olympic Solidarity Scholarship.

Allicock’s scholarship will run until August 31, 2021, after the conclusion of the Tokyo Olympics. In fact, the GOA’s support started in September of this year.

According to GOA treasurer Garfield Wiltshire, an issue between amateur boxing’s governing body AIBA (International Boxing Association) and the International Olympic Committee  caused Allicock’s scholarship to be put  on hold.

Table tennis players Chelsea Edghill and Shemar Britton, along with triple jumper Troy Doris, badminton player Narayan Ramdhani and athletes Winston George, Aliyah Abrams, Andrea Foster, Brenessa Thompson and Kadecia Baird were the previous beneficiaries of the Olympic Solidarity Scholarship.

But, Wiltshire told reporters that Baird, due to “issues with her reporting” was removed from the funding and replaced with Allicock.

President of GOA, Kalam Juman-Yassin said Allicock “is a person worthy to be on that scholarship; he is our top and most promising Olympic hopeful and I am certain that with this added impetus, it will drive him on to do even better. Keevin can now afford to train full-time and I want him to be able to concentrate and put the maximum he can do to be able to qualify.”

“My focus now is going to be 100% and more, and by God’s grace definitely will are going to bring this Olympic medal, we are going to qualify and we are going to fly the flag high again  because that’s my dream,” Allicock said, with his coach Sebert Blake in attendance yesterday, while thanking GOA for their support.

Meanwhile, Steve Ninvalle, president of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), said with GOA’s support, “Keevin will now be able to focus entirely on boxing, and this is something we have been hoping for for some time. We don’t have persons who can box and only box and this scholarship paves the way for him to be 100% focussed on boxing.”

According to Ninvalle, there is an even greater possibility that Guyana will not only see Allicock qualify for the Olympics, but bring an Olympic medal back to Guyana.

Guyana and the Caribbean’s bantamweight champion, Allicock, moved up to #19 in the world in the latest International Boxing Association (AIBA) rankings.

The ranking made him the only Guyanese named on the AIBA listing.

Allicock, 21, won silver at the 2017 Youth Commonwealth Games in The Bahamas.

In the quarter-final of the Pan Am qualifiers in Nicaragua, Allicock lost by walkover to his Dominican Republic opponent, after the fight supervisor deemed his vest colour inappropriate for competition.

It was not only after a protest filed by Ninvalle to the sport’s governing body, that Allicock was able to qualify for the Pan Am Games in Lima, Peru.

Allicock, along with Desmond Amsterdam, Collin Lewis and Dennis Thomas, will be heading to represent Guyana at the AIBA Olympic qualifiers, some time in May, 2021.

Meanwhile, looking ahead, Allicock said he’s staying focussed to qualify for the Olympics next year, where he’s also hoping to join Michael Parris.

Parris, at the 1980 Olympics, won bronze in the bantamweight division. It stands as Guyana’s only medal at the Olympic Games.