By Donald Duff
Manager/coach of Guyana’s nine-member team to the Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association(CABA) junior, cadet and female championships in Trinidad Carl Franklyn said yesterday he expected his small but strong team to be competitive.
Franklyn said the championships which runs from July 22-26 at the Chaguramas Convention Centre, will cater for 11 divisions in the junior category and 13 divisions each in the cadet and female categories for a possible total of 37 participants.
Guyana’s team will consist of one female and six male boxers and Franklyn proffered the single word “funds’ when questioned why his organization was not sending a larger contingent.
He admitted that with such a small team hopes of winning the championships appeared to be remote but offered this statement…“We can still be competitive.”
Guyana were runners up in the junior and senior categories of the 2006 tournament staged in Trinidad to eventual winners Barbados while last year’s tournament staged in St Maarten ended in chaos.
President of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) Affeeze Khan said yesterday that the tournament in St Maarten was called off because of poor management control. “There was no accommodation. The whole thing collapsed after the boxers were grounded in St Maarten for a couple of days.”
Khan said the tournament has now been split into two parts with Trinidad hosting the juniors, females and cadets while CABA was still looking for a host to stage the senior tournament.
Guyana’s team will be spearheaded by junior Rondel Douglas, who has fought in Goodwill tournaments in Trinidad and St Kitts as a member of the Ricola Boxing Gym.
Apart from Douglas, who will compete in the flyweight category, Franklyn said the tournament will be the first international exposure for most of the others.
The other members of the team are cadets Moonchan Sankar and Stefan Gouveia, who will compete in the pin weight and featherweight categories and juniors Herlando Allicock, Cleveland Rock and Akeem Alexander, who will compete in the light flyweight, bantamweight and welterweight categories.
The lone female is Mandessa Moses and she will compete in the lightweight category.
Franklyn said none of the boxers would be participating in the National Open championships which began last night simply because of the fact that they would be leaving tomorrow morning well before the finals.
The team’s participation was made possible thanks to special help GABA received from Caribbean Airlines especially general manager Carlton De Four and Taiwo Stuart-Worrell.
And Khan said yesterday that GABA would also like to thank general manager of Scotia Bank Amanda StAubyn, CEO of Ansa McAl, Paul Chan-A-Sue, Frank De Abreu, general manager of Desinco, Jose Da Silva, general manager of Modern Optical,. K.A. Juman Yassin, president of the Guyana Olympic Association, Commodore Gary Best, head of the Guyana Defence Force, Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Culture Youth & Sport, and all others who contributed by providing sponsorship and other assistance to ensuring that Guyana would be represented at the event.
