When Guyana’s boxers return home today from the five-day Caribbean Development Boxing Tournament (CDBT) in Barbados, they will do so with a treasure chest of medals.
During the December 6-10 tournament which was staged at the Sea Rocks Dome in Christchurch, the nation’s boxers punched their way to 10 medals, nine being gold and the other a silver.
The fistic sport has always done Guyana proud on the international stage and the latest success story of the tradition will allow the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) to have a sense of fulfillment after enduring a hard fought battle for sponsorship prior to the departure of the contingent.
Isaiah Moore, Keevin Allicock, Akiel Mounter, Joel Williamson, Colin Lewis, Desmond Amsterdam, Christopher Moore, Jason Barker and Clairmont Gibson were the boxers who earned gold while Kevin Allicock won the silver.
When contacted yesterday, GBA president Steve Ninvalle said: “It’s the perfect Christmas gift for the sport and I do hope this will serve as a catalyst to renew or to draw more respect towards boxing.
“I believe we have earned that and it is my hope that we will have a much easier road,” he added.
Ninvalle, who championed a 100-mile walk to help raise funds to send the outfit to the Land of the Flying Fish said: “The hardship we had to go through in order to get to the tournament, I think that played a major role in our guys digging deep and being able to come away with the champion honours.”
The GBA head noted that Guyana’s boxers have established themselves as the best in the English-speaking Caribbean but said that they will need to expand their range in order for the development to continue in the ring.
“We, as a nation, while we will continue to dominate within the English-speaking Caribbean, I believe that we need to point our gloves now to Latin America and further afield. That’s the only way we will be able to instill some form of development.”
This year’s tournament, which formed part of the 50th anniversary games of the Barbados Olympic Association, attracted boxers from the inaugural host, Guyana, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Martinique, St. Lucia, St Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago, The US Virgin Islands and the host.
