As if the no returns by the Guyana boxing contingent to the just-concluded Commonwealth Games in India were not enough the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) yesterday said they could not give an account of the whereabouts of the three-member team.
At a press conference held yesterday at the Water Chris Hotel, Waterloo Street, President of the Association (GABA) Steve Ninvalle who was a member of the boxing delegation announced that boxers Clevlon Rock, Dexter Jordan and Devon Boatswain had not returned to Guyana with the rest of the local delegation.
According to the GABA head, the boxers apparently absconded while the athletes were in transit in the United States of America.
He reported that the boxers were last seen at the JFK International Airport on Saturday and since then local officials have been unable to contact them.
According to Ninvalle, team coach Terrence Poole and Maurice Rajkumar, who were all part of the boxing team that attended the Commonwealth Games, and the boxers, stopped in transit to Guyana at the JFK Airport with some 18 other members of the Guyanese contingent who had been to the Games.
It was here that the lads disappeared and the boxing officials were forced to return to Guyana without them.
“All of the boxers that attended the Commonwealth Games, we more or less cannot account for them right now, they were supposed to be in Guyana on the 16 October and to date we have heard nothing from them and they were not on the flight to Guyana.
“And we, as an executive, see this as being reason to think that they have absconded, and we have notified the necessary authorities,” Ninvalle stated.
According to Ninvalle, following a 16 hour flight from India on Saturday morning at 12:25 hours, with India nine and a half hours ahead of Guyana, the boxers, along with everyone else arrived at the airport to spend a 10-hour wait before boarding the flight back home.
During the period when they were clearing customs the GABA head reported that Rock and Jordan could not be located.
Boatswain, he reported disappeared later after remaining with Poole, who was to travel with the three boxers.
Boatswain, Ninvalle said, had indicated that he had misplaced his boarding pass, which in addition to the two boxers being missing, would leave them missing the first flight and having to revise their arrangement to get on the following flight to Guyana.
However, after being sent to search for his boarding pass, Boatswain never returned. All three left behind all of their luggage while Poole was in possession of the passports of Rock and Jordan, which were handed over to the immigration officials in the US.
Boatswain was still in possession of his passport when he disappeared.
“Two of the boxers actually left earlier in the morning, and then it was realized that Mr. Boatswain did not have his boarding pass and there was a little confusion at the time because the airline was calling for them to board, and Mr. Boatswain had to leave to go and get a boarding pass, so he left to get his boarding pass and did not return.
“These guys left their bags and everything, but immediately after it was confirmed that they had not returned, their documents were handed over to immigration and an investigation is actually ongoing right now,” the GABA head stated.
Ninvalle lashed out at the boxers calling them “unpatriotic, selfish and a disgrace” to themselves, the sport of boxing and to the country of Guyana.
The association is all the more confounded as, according to Ninvalle, the three-member party was “a most disciplined team that did not give an iota or inkling that something was amiss.
“It is a breach of trust, it is a breach of trust to us, and it is a breach of trust to the nation, and it will be quite a time before that trust could be amended, they have not only done hurt to themselves but to the sport of boxing and Guyana as well, and they have done injury as well to many other sports. My taking is that these boxers should be banned for life because of the insult and embarrassment that they have caused… it was a terrible surprise to us that they were not on the plane to Guyana,” Ninvalle said.
And in light of the boxers’ behaviour, Ninvalle disclosed that at a meeting held earlier yesterday among the executives of the association it was determined to make an amendment to the GABA’s constitution as it relates to its disciplinary measures meted out to errant boxers.
“We have met as an executive this morning and an amendment will be made to our constitution because in fact disciplinary measures given to boxers can only be for a maximum of one year and we feel that in such a case that is not enough, so we have decided to amend our constitution to deal with this,” Ninvalle stated.
By their actions the three boxers have dealt a very heavy blow to boxing in Guyana, as all three were deemed among Guyana’s best and were expected to play a highly influential part in GABA’s future plans for boxing in Guyana and taking it to the international scene.
According to Ninvalle, among themselves the three boxers carry a heavy share of Guyana’s boxing experience on the international scene and were a part of GABA’s plans for Guyana’s boxing at the upcoming 2012 Olympic Games.
“Our 2012 Olympics plans would have included them based on the fact that they would have had the most international exposure and without a doubt Rock and Jordan are two of the best that we have, and they were a part of our plans for the development of boxing. And it’s a low blow from these guys,” Ninvalle said.
Twenty-year-old Rock, who fights in the lightweight category, is a Junior Commonwealth Games silver medalist, while Boatswain is Guyana’s current national middleweight champion. Jordan had his first international exposure earlier this year when he represented Guyana at the Central America and the Caribbean (CAC) Games where he earned himself a bronze medal. Rock and Boatswain were also apart of the team that represented at the CAC Games.
