OLYMPIAN Keevin Allicock will be the first Guyanese boxer to step into the ring at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, when he squares off with Kenya’s Okoth Okongo in Round-of-32 Bantamweight action today, at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham. Fight time is 14:15hrs (GT time).

The last time Guyana won a boxing medal at the former British Empire Games, was at the 1990 event in Auckland, New Zealand, when Wesley Christmas claimed bronze in the Bantamweight division.
In fact, of the 16 medals won by Guyana since the 1930 Commonwealth Games, 11 are split between Track and Field and Boxing.

The country’s other medals at the games came from Rowing (bronze – 1930), Swimming (bronze – 1938) and Weightlifting (bronze – 1954, 1962 and silver – 1966).
Meanwhile, Light Welterweight, Colin Lewis, is down to compete tomorrow against Colin Louis Richamo from Mauritius. Desmond Amsterdam, tomorrow, will be making his Commonwealth Games debut against New Zealand’s Richardson Emile.

Lewis and Amsterdam received a bye to the Round-of-16 of their respective categories.
Winfield Braithwaite’s 1978 top-of-the-podium finish in the Men’s Light Welterweight Division was the last time Guyana won a gold medal in boxing at the Commonwealth Games.