– over treatment of Simon Pures; calls for international help for amateur boxing to return to the glory days of yore
One day after castigating sports officials for not having the boxers preparing for the upcoming Junior Commonwealth Games train at the Andrew `Sixhead’ Lewis gym, Mayor Hamilton Green was still seeing red yesterday despite the fact that the boxers had moved their training base.
Speaking to Stabroek Sport yesterday Green said the intervention of Presidential Adviser on Empowerment Odinga Lumumba and himself had led to the four boxers preparing for the third Junior Commonwealth Games to be held in Pune, India to be moved to a better equipped gym.
On Tuesday Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) head Affeeze Khan had told Stabroek Sport that the Harpy Eagles Boxing Gym in Albouystown used by boxers, Akeem Alexander, Herlando Allicock, Stefan Gouveia and Cleveland Rocke as their training base, was unsatisfactory and that the boxers were at risk of being injured.
Khan had added that during a tour of the training facility by Green, he had questioned why the much better equipped Andrew `Sixhead’ Lewis gym was not being utilised.
Yesterday Green said that the boxing coaches were using what facilities they were provided with but this was not good for the game.
He noted that amateur boxing had become a lot more complex especially in the scoring department.
According to Green, judging from the last few international tournaments that he viewed, amateur boxing was not so much about contact but more about scoring.
He said a lot will be expected from Guyana’s Simon Pures who would need to be mentally equipped in terms of how to score and where to score as once in the ring the focus would be on scoring and not fighting.
International help
Green is of the view that the GABA needs to secure the services of internationally-recognized coaches and he identified Cuba and China as likely sources with Cuba gaining his preference owing to its long-standing record in the sport internationally.
The Georgetown mayor, who said he should be attending an international conference in Cuba in November, indicated that he might raise the topic with some of his colleagues.
In the meantime, the GABA said it had already discussed the issue of coaches with its hierarchy and short as well as long-term stints were being considered.
And, when it comes to enhanced facilities, Green said that Khan already has a blueprint that includes a modern amateur boxing gym.
Khan, he added, was doing his utmost for the sport and a plot of land opposite where Green resides in Lodge has been identified.
This plot has received the blessings of the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown and construction will start as soon as funds are secured.
The mayor said that if GABA was successful in this project, by the 2012 Olympics in London and the Isle of Man Commonwealth IV Youth Games in 2011, Guyana should be able to send one of its best teams since the 1970’s and 1980’s.
Another plan that Khan has put forward for GABA that has the full blessing of the mayor is the plan to take boxing to every “nook and cranny” in Guyana.
This, will see pugilists not being churned out from Georgetown and its immediate surroundings only but also from the riverain areas.
However, it will be necessary to secure the blessings of government ministries as well as donor communities to establish modern gyms in different parts of the country.
Andrew ‘Six-Head’
Lewis gym
The mayor is of the view that since the incarceration of notable boxing coach George “Canchie” Oprecht, the gym has declined somewhat.
Green said that he knew Oprecht since the 1970’s when he used to train boxers in a makeshift gym at a ‘bottom house’ in James Street, Albouystown.
Oprecht, he said, was one of the better boxing coaches around but his recent run-in with the law has now cost him dearly, notwithstanding the fact that at present he trains the Georgetown Prison Service boxers.
“The gym needs another good coach to take over and enliven back amateur boxing around that area,” Green said.
He said that unlike what many persons may say or think, boxing was one of those sports that broke down the racial barrier and said that the recent Olympics was one such example where boxers from all races and creeds were seen in the ring battling for supremacy.
At home here, Green said, the co-operation of the public, the business sector and politicians can bring back the days of yore when Guyana dominated boxing in the region.
