Preparation has been a tough hill to climb -GBA president
LESS than two months of preparation remains for the Guyanese boxing team, scheduled to participate in the long-awaited Americas Olympic Boxing Qualifiers which unravels in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from May 10 to 16, 2021.
The five-member team consists of Keevin Allicock (a two-time current Caribbean champion), Desmond Amsterdam, Colin Lewis (former Caribbean champions) and Dennis Thomas (a Caribbean two-time silver medallist) and Canada-based Taveena Kum, the lone woman in the Guyanese team.
The event, to be held in the capital and largest city of Argentina, will allocate 49 Olympic quota places for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
When Chronicle Sport recently spoke to president of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) Steve Ninvalle about the team’s preparation, he said, “Training is quite okay, to put it in better grammar, the training is continuing and as the days go by it is intensifying. The issue that we have which is of concern to us is because of COVID-19 we can’t move as we would have expected to to facilitate adequate preparation.”
“What you have to understand is that this is not unique to Guyana; Trinidad can’t move, St. Lucia can’t move, so it is right through the Caribbean they have been hit by these problems.
“If you’ve noticed, cases have been rising in Brazil a d Cuba has closed its doors. So we can’t send our boxers to those places. We were trying to work something out with Ecuador but that has not come to fruition. So if you think that Guyana will not be adequately prepared then its right across the region because every single country has been affected and we are doing the best we can within the confines of COVID.”
Cuba was also another option that did not come to fruition because the country has returned to a lockdown state. In January 2020, the four males on the team began a 3-month training stint in Cuba that was plagued by the pandemic. It caused the team to be stranded for 126 days in that country before the authorities decided to reopen the airports.
Ninvalle disclosed, “As president of the Guyana Boxing Association, I can’t want and I will not send any boxers out without me knowing how they are coming back, when they coming back and if he will be alright when he comes back. The safety of my boxers is paramount.”
“Now, while we are preparing for the Olympic Qualifiers, if you’re going to ask me and I have to be honest; if we were going to be as prepared as we were last year the answer will be no. We can’t! Because of all these things that COVID has done to us, but we are still prepared. Here again this is not unique to Guyana.”
Ninvalle also put forth his confidence in coaches Terrence Poole and Sebert Blake who have been in charge of the regular training activities with the team.
“We got some experienced coaches in Blake and Poole; they know what is to be done and they know to cut our cloth to suit what garment we are trying to make. It is not a best case scenario but we have to work with what we have at this time. It is not a usual time; it is an extraordinary time which calls for extraordinary measures.”
The psychological aspect of the boxers also has the attention of the GBA boss who believes a lot of evaluation needs to be done to keep the boxers in the right state of mind. It has been more than a year since the athletes had serious competition or sparring partners, levels above theirs, to garner more skill and experience.
Meanwhile, Kum will make her mark in the history once the Americas Qualifiers are competed since she will be the first female to represent Guyana at an Olympic Qualifiers. She will stake her claim in the Flyweight division which starts at 48kg.
At the Qualifiers, Allicock the Bantamweight will be competing at 56kg, Lewis will fight at Light Welterweight which is 64kg, Amsterdam is a Middleweight contender at 75kg and Thomas will battle in the Light Heavyweight category at 81kg.
