The Olympic fate of local boxing trio, Keevin Allicock, Colin Lewis and Desmond Amsterdam will be known next month when the complete ranking table is revealed by the Boxing Task Force (BTF) of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
So said Vice President of the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) and President of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), Steve Ninvalle.
“We have to wait until June 11th or later for all the ranking systems to be finalized and for us to know exactly all of the boxers, not one or two but all of the persons who would have qualified for the Olympics from AMBC,” Ninvalle told this publication yesterday.
A ranking system was employed to determine which boxers would punch their ticket to the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan this summer after the Olympic boxing qualifier for the Americas originally scheduled for May 10-16 in Buenos Aires, Argentina was cancelled due to a surge in cases of COVID-19.
Ninvalle compared the ranking to that of an ‘advanced Duckworth/Lewis system’ used in the sport of cricket to determine a winner.
“We are yet to fully comprehend the complex issues related to the rankings and how it will work in this situation and will await the IOC’s release on who are the qualifiers for Tokyo,” he said.
“AMBC has 62 places and it’s a complex way in which we decide tantamount to a little advanced Duckworth/Lewis system, really only the IOC and a few other people understand how it works,” he added. Despite the uncertainty and the potholes, Ninvalle stated that the boxers have been advised to continue their training regimen as if they were certainly on the road to Tokyo.
“We have again asked, advised and instructed our boxers to continue training for the Games and maybe on June 13th we will be able to have the final say with that.
Guyana has not had anyone who participated in the Olympics for the past 25 years, hopefully it can take a turn this time even though we are affected by the coronavirus pandemic.”
Ninvalle concluded by stating that “Over the years Guyana has consistently nurtured a competitive squad of boxers. I am optimistic that dividends from that programme will be received.
