The Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) has emerged as a key figure in Keevin Allicock’s corner.
It was disclosed yesterday at Olympic House in Liliendaal that the association will provide a monthly stipend of a minimum of $40,000 to the young prize fighter on his quest to medal at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Allicock, fighting in the flyweight division, won Guyana’s lone medal (a silver) at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas in July and according to President of the GOA, K. Juman Yassin, “I saw a lot of dedication with him and as a result, I really feel that he could go very far.
“The GOA as a result, will be providing him for the month of September, the sum of $70, 0000 and this is to go towards his training, feeding etc.,” Yassin added.
Yassin explained that after the month of September, based on the recommendation of Allicock’s coach Sebert Blake and president of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) Steve Ninvalle, the fighter will be given a minimum of $40,000 monthly which will be increased based on his performance.
“What we’re going to ask Keevin to do is continue working hard and do not stray,” Yassin stated.
Meanwhile, Ninvalle said: “this tells us that we’re going down the right path, and hopefully we could have more of our athletes benefiting. If we should take this from an holistic way, it will tell you that what Mr. Allicock is getting right now, he will be earning more than what a local professional fighter gets within a year. We hope that many other members of the boxing fraternity can benefit in the future.”
The super confident, braided 18-year old pugilist from Albouystown then thanked the GOA for being in his corner and he also made a call for other sportsmen and women to receive similar support.
Allicock’s next international outing will be in Chile at the South American Championship from September 27 to October 8. Yassin also announced that in September, “Allicock will not be the only one to benefit from the GOA. We will be looking at our elite athletes and also those young athletes to see what funding we could do for them. We have several athletes who are outside of Guyana and we want to assist them.” Yassin then challenged the government stating “the GOA is prepared to put in a pool, at least $5M and I’m asking that the government match this amount and we will use this money to help our athletes and coaches.”
He added “We need to make our coaches almost full time. So I open this invitation for the new minister of sports to come on board and I think we could go a far way for this year with $10M.” (Emmerson Campbell)
