Just one more win.
Guyana’s bantamweight boxer Clevon Rock yesterday won his semi-final bout at the third junior Commonwealth Games in Pune, India to assure Guyana of a silver medal at the games.
In his latest bout Rock got the better of Scotland’s Josh Taylor to advance to the final.
Rock, who began his medal hunt in impressive style with a 0:46 seconds knock out of Kenya’s Kingstone Otieno on the first day of competition then outpointed Sarafadeen Shittu of Nigeria in the quarterfinals.
In his semi-final fight that took place yesterday morning local time Taylor was leading 7-2 after two rounds when Sri Lankan referee Udeni Kiridena stopped the fight at 1:55 seconds of the round.
The reason given for the stoppage was that Taylor had suffered an injury and could not continue thus Rock won.
Rock will now face Englishman John Quigley who, after receiving a bye in the first round beat Australian Timacoy Williams on points 1:4 in his quarter-final bout.
In the semi-final Quigley faced Indian Durga Rao Vankala and after the first two rounds the score read 4:3 in the Englishman favour.
The Englishman had other ideas when he fought the third round scoring at will and taking seven points to zero and added the finishing touches in the final round winning by 14:3 overall.
The final was fought at 2am this morning and all bets will be on Rock who has already created history by being assured of a silver medal.
But gold is all that will be on his coaches Carl Franklyn and Terrence Poole’s not to mention Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) president Affeeze Khan’s minds.
Rock will also have the support of his three boxing colleagues, four table tennis players and their coach along with Chef-de-mission Dr. Karen Pilgrim.
In the two previous Commonwealth Youth Games Guyana failed to medal and Rock is now assured of a hero’s welcome when he returns home.
Meanwhile Guyana’s Trenace Lowe’s hunt for a medal ended when she was defeated by Singapore’s Isabelle Li in four straight games.
