Despite losing their semi-final bouts at the Central America and Caribbean (CAC) Qualifiers in Mexico, President of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), Steve Ninvalle believes that Keevin Allicock and Colin Lewis have the tools to medal at the CAC Games come July in Barranquilla, Colombia.
Ninvalle then went out on a limb to state that he is also confident of the two standout pugilists medalling also at the more prestigious and competitive Commonwealth Games.
Allicock (bantamweight) and Lewis (light welterweight) secured bronze medals at the recent Qualifiers and clinched CAC berths in the aftermath of making it to the semis.
Their respective opponents were Robeisy Ramirez of Cuba and Eduardo Sanchez of Costa Rica.
Said Ninvalle yesterday “There is no doubt in my mind that Lewis won that fight by unanimous decision but in the judges minds, he lost by split decision, so we can’t do anything about that.”
Ninvalle then added: “Keevin lost by unanimous decision, he fought the 2016 Olympic champion, the world number one, a Pan Am gold medalist, the world champion at bantamweight. Keevin is a flyweight but we allowed him to fight in the higher weight class. That shows he has a lot of potential and a far way to go since this is his first year as an elite fighter.”
The GBA head then reminded that Allicock boxed his way to a silver medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games last year in the Bahamas.
“He’s shown he can medal with the best in the world and he shown that an Olympic medal is not far from our reach.”
When quizzed on whether he thinks the pair can return home with hardware from CAC, Ninvalle said “I’ll go even further, my view is that they will medal at the Commonwealth Games.”
The XXI Commonwealth Games, commonly known as Gold Coast 2018, will be held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia between 4 and 15 April.
