Guyana’s cadet boxer Moonchan Sankar and female boxer Mandessa Moses struck gold when the Caribbean Amateur Boxing Champion -ships continued at the Chaguramas Convention centre in Trinidad and Tobago.
And president of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) Affeeze Khan was high in praise for his fledgling Guyana team which secured two gold and two silver medals Thursday night.
According to Khan Sankar destroyed his opponent Jessie Beckles from Trinidad and Tobago in the Pinweight division while in another contest Guyana’s lone female representative, Moses, boxed her way to gold against home girl Liana Boodram.
However, Guyana’s Rondel Douglas lost a close contest to Barbadian Cobie Braddie in the final to earn a silver medal while junior welterweight Akeem Alexander lost his championship fight to Dillon Gilbert in another closely contested bout to also earn silver for his team.
According to Khan, Cadet Stefan Gouveia, who in the three months training camp building up to the championships did not miss a day of training, clobbered St. Lucia’s Travis Maynard forcing the referee to call a halt to the fight in one minute twenty five seconds of the first round catapulting him into the gold medal fight against Matthew Stedwill which took place last night.
Cleveland Rock was also down to take on Sharez Delores in the gold medal bout last night while Herlando Allicock was also fighting for a gold medal which means that Guyana is assured of seven medals from the championships.
Still holding our own in the caribbean and congratulations are in order for the entire team however, we need to be exposed and compete against tougher opposition. Winning in the caribbean really doesn’t do much for our credibility any more, the fact that the caribbean would not be represented at boxing in Bejing says a lot. We need to elevate our standards beginning with the opposition that we pick on in order to develop our young talent, Cuba would be a great place to start with.