President of the Guyana Boxing Association and Vice President of the Americas Boxing Confederstion (AMBC) Steve Ninvalle has organised a two-day virtual seminar for Referee/Judges of Haiti, Suriname and Curacao. The seminar will be conducted by Chairman of the AIBA Referee/Judges Commission Ray Silvas of the USA and will run from August 8 to 9. So far 149 participants from 17 countries have registered for the seminar. Guyana will be represented by eight officials. The local team will be led by ABIA One Stars Richard Braithwaite and Lawrence Assanah and the country’s first and only AIBA certified International Technical Officer (ITO) Elton Chase. Jermaine Craig, Colin Rodney, Nicola Yhap, Shanice Agard and Denola Bristol. The RJ seminar follows closely on the heels of a coaches seminar run by AMBC a few weeks ago. Guyana was represented by Terrence Poole MS, Sebert Blake, Clive Atwell, Joseph Murray and Orlan Rogers. Ninvalle said that the upcoming seminar discussed was with Silvas while the two were in Panama in January.
“Mr. Silvas was very eager to have this happen and we would have had cogent discussions in Panama. However, the advent of Covid19 has forced us to make it a virtual one,” Ninvalle said.
Ninvalle, also the Chairman of the Caribbean Steering Committee added that a seminar to update coaches on the technical aspects associated with scoring of fights will be conducted soon after.
“If we are to train our fighters to win then it is important that our coaches understand what the referees and judges are looking for. A lot has changed from the `80s and `90s,” he said.