Dear Editor,
I am personally acquainted with Mr Affeeze Khan, President of the Amateur Boxing Association, whose public appeal for assistance to send four female boxers to participate in the Pan American Female boxing tournament in Trinidad from October 1-8, 2008, attracted my attention. Being a sports enthusiast I provided assistance in various forms which exceeded $100,000. Upon request I agreed to accompany the boxers along with their coach as their Manager on my trip en-route to Canada.
In Trinidad we were housed at the Cosmic Boxing Gym in Marabella which is owned and managed by Mr Cecil Ford, President of the Trinidad Amateur Boxing Association. There I assisted our Coach, Mr James Walcott with the training programme of our boxers and personally funded all necessary and miscellaneous expenses for the team.
Two days after, I was informed by Mr Ford that two of our boxers, ie Amanda Charles aged 14 and her sister Ansilla Norville aged 16 could not participate in the tournament as they were under the age requirement of 17 years. I explained that I was never involved in the selection process of the boxers in Guyana and had to agree that our officials who were responsible were inept and culpable. Further, much to my disgust and embarrassment it was discovered that the other two boxers, Mandessa Moses and Alicia Marques, were in the same weight division which was also a breach of the pre-conditions imposed. I was forced to endure varying forms of criticism directed against Guyana where our national image was being tarnished and vilified.
In Trinidad, I discovered that Alicia Marques who hails from Port Kaituma had no prior boxing experience and displayed an alarming level of incompetence in training sessions. She had very little skill, and apart from grit and courage possessed an arsenal of wild unorthodox slugs with no technique.
She was often the recipient of snide remarks and cynical comments from the Trinidadian contingent who were housed in the same venue for training.
It was therefore no surprise that on the opening night of the tournament (Friday 3rd) she was comprehensively beaten and outclassed by her Canadian opponent, Katie Dunn, in her first fight where she suffered the indignity of not scoring a single point, and was saved from additional punishment by the referee in round two as she trailed by the largest margin of defeat, ie 15 to 0. I later spoke to Ms Romona Agard, an officiating referee/judge from Guyana who opined that Marques’ performance was indeed pathetic and should have been discontinued in the first round. Her sordid performance was an insult to the rich history associated with Guyanese boxers and justifiably evoked criticism at her selection to participate in the tournament.
It was with shock and disbelief that I saw an article in the Kaieteur News on Tuesday October 7, 2008, where Alicia Marques was prominently featured as having defeated her Canadian opponent in her first fight. It was utterly disgusting and furthest from the truth and quite the opposite of what transpired.
On Thursday, October 2, 2008, about 8.30 am, I was having breakfast with my entire team at ‘Crew Inn’ Hotel where we were then being accommodated when I was approached by Mrs Joyce Bowen, President of the Barbados Amateur boxing Association and Chairperson of IWBA, along with Mr Domingo Salano President of the AMBC and AIBA for the Americas. I was officially notified that Guyana did not adhere to the pre-conditions outlined for the boxers to qualify for participation in the tournament, ie age requirement.
As they were explaining our infringement, Alicia Marques, Ansilla Norville and Amanda Charles with disregard for the discussion got up and left the table. I was embarrassed by the rude exit of the girls when the two most senior officials of the tournament were addressing issues relating to them. Their inappropriate departure was disgustingly evident.
The Coach later informed me that the girls were not seen thereafter for over three hours and learnt that they had left the confines of the hotel compound even though they were warned to obtain prior permission before going anywhere. He further reported to me that when he later scolded Ansilla Norville she unapologetically retorted that Mrs Bowne made her angry when she ruled that her age did not qualify her to participate in the tournament. He also lamented that when he attempted to reprimand Alicia Marques she was disrespectful to him and even refused to train when he requested her to do so.
The very callous behaviour of these girls leaves much to be desired and was a source of profound embarrassment which construed a poor image of Guyana.
On Saturday, October 4, Mandessa Moses who is the most respectful, dedicated, disciplined and capable boxer on the team was defeated by the very experienced and astute Adriana Araujo of Brazil.
On Sunday October 5, request was made for me to send Ansilla Norville to participate in uncompetitive sparring sessions for referees to be evaluated.
Her refusal was beyond belief, since regular comments were made in relation to the unnecessary hosting of herself and sister who did not qualify to participate in the tournament.
In abject disappointment I left Trinidad later the said Sunday 5th for Canada since our participation in the tournament was over. On Monday, October 6, I telephoned Mr Walcott from Canada who disturbingly reported to me that Alicia Marques did not join his team to witness the tournament that night but left the hotel secretly. He further reported that she did the same thing the following day.
Yours faithfully,
Maurice Rajkumar
Editor’s note
We sent a copy of this letter to the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) for any comments they might have wished to make, and received the following response from Secretary of GABA, Mr Otis Van-Lewin:
“As you are aware, Mr Affeeze Khan (The President of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Assoc-iation) is presently out of the country and therefore cannot give a comment on this matter.
“However, I can confirm that there were discussions with Mr Maurice Rajkumar and the executives of the GABA and he volunteered to go with the Female Amateur boxing team as their Manager to Trinidad to participate in the Female Pan American Champion-ship. The female team that went to the championship was very inexperienced with only Ms Moses having participated in a previous international tournament.
“The selection of the team was made by the National Coach assisted by the Gym Coaches and since the gyms were prepared to assist in paying for the airline tickets for their boxers, Mr Khan agreed that it would be a good exposure for the young ladies. I do not think that Mr Khan knew that two of the young ladies were under the age limit and therefore could not participate in the tournament. This was also a lapse with the more experienced coaches who were fully aware of the regulations and stipulations with regard to the tournament.
“The Executives of the association were saddened with the experience that Mr Rajkumar went through on his first exposure with Amateur Boxing and hope that he would not be disgruntled enough to decide that he would no longer give assistance and support to the sport.
“Whenever Mr Rajkumar submits his report on the tournament to the Execut-ives of the Association, I am sure that he will receive a formal apology. We have all learnt from this experience and will ensure that such incidents do not recur in the future.”
