AS Guyana is slowly opening up to international traffic, Guyana Boxing Association has registered to host the next Caribbean Championship once it receives all COVID-19 related clearances.

GBA president Steve Ninvalle yesterday disclosed that the hosting of the Caribbean Championship came up at a recent meeting of Caribbean presidents and Guyana accepted the offer to host.

“There is no definite timeframe as yet since there is the overhanging threat of COVID-19; but there may be a likelihood of such a competition being hosted in the first quarter of 2021. Guyana has accepted that offer to host but the timing will depend on how restless Mr COVID-19 is,” Ninvalle told Chronicle Sport.

Guyana staged the Championships in 2015 and 2018. On both occasions the Land of Many Waters came out on top. In 2018 Guyana picked up 10 gold, three silver and two bronze medals to snatch the championship title from nearest rivals Trinidad and Tobago.

The locals had won the inaugural Caribbean Boxing Championship when Guyana hosted the tournament in 2015 and subsequently made a successful defence of that title in Barbados in 2016, but in 2017, due to financial constraints, could have sent only four boxers to the championship which was hosted by St Lucia.

St Maarten was scheduled to host the 2020 Caribbean Championship but abandoned plans because of unforeseen circumstances. According to Ninvalle, Guyana’s experience in pulling off such tournaments, along with the quantity and quality of the boxers, played a part in the country offering to host.

“It’s more of a benefit for us if we stage. All of our boxers get a chance to participate also our officials. We lost the Champion Country Title in 2017 because we were only able to send a team of four boxers to St Lucia. The very next year the crown was back home when we hosted,” Ninvalle stated.

GBA has only held one competition for the year (February 15) and Ninvalle ruled out any chance of another during 2020. “I don’t see any such activity being held for the remainder of the year. We can be consoled by the fact that almost every other country in the region is facing the same issue at the same time.”

However, Ninvalle a vice-president of the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) said that he will be pushing on for more virtual seminars for the local and regional fraternity.