The Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) is appealing for sponsorship from the private and public sector in order to send its seven-man team to Tijuana, Mexico in July to compete in the Pan Am Qualifiers.
Despite just accruing a 10th of the $1.5M needed so far to send the five boxers and two officials to the July 4-9 Qualifier, the cash strapped GBA is optimistic of garnering financial support down the road and will encamp its boxers from today at the Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis Gym.
“The encampment of boxers that have been selected to represent us at the Pan Am Qualifiers will start tomorrow,” said president of the association, Steve Ninvalle yesterday.
“This is even as we continue to experience difficulty with garnering sponsorship for this activity.”
Ninvalle added:“We will have to go to the private sector to see if we can realize this because of the importance of participating in this qualifier. This qualifier cannot be underscored, from this we can go on to the Pan Am Games in Canada.”
He continued:“To miss the qualifier basically says that we cannot qualify for the Pan Am, and these championships are preparation for the Olympics next year and if we miss them we do ourselves an injustice. An injustice of not being properly prepared for the Olympics.”
The team selected in order of priority is Dennis Thomas, Dellon Charles, Jason Phillips, Dawani Lampkin and US based Quincy ‘Biggie’ Small.”
Sebert Blake and Francisco Hernandez Roldan will coach the outfit. Blake will also undertake the duties of manager.
The 2015 Pan American Games will take place in Toronto, Canada, from July 10-26, and feature 36 Pan American-recognized summer sports.
