Amateur boxing came off the mat and made a successful return to its feet on Saturday in the form of the Pepsi/Mike Parris U-16 Tournament after being floored by the pandemic for almost two years.
In an effort to keep the competitive juices of the teen boxers can flowing, President of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), Steve Ninvalle stated that the tournament will be held twice per month as international events are imminent.
With the Caribbean Schoolboys and juniors tournament set for August, Ninvalle said “we would need to have our young pugilist have as much competition as possible.”
Ninvalle continued, “I spoke to National Coach, Lennox Daniels and with the Technical Director Terrence Poole (MS) and we’ve decided that twice a month there will be an U16 competition.”
The GBA head exclaimed that “boxing is back with a bang, especially in the nursery department which we said we would be placing so much emphasis on.”
“It was heartening to see what took place this weekend; to see the sort of professionalism with everyone involved. It gives me a lot of energy to move forward. So people can expect a lot of nursery boxing now until August or even beyond that because as I said, this is our focus right now; the nursery of the sport,” Ninvalle said. At the event which was staged at the Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis Gym, Jeremiah Duncan, hailing from the Young Achievers Boxing gym earned the coveted best boxer award, while Vergenoegen and Berbice Jammers were joint winners for the Best Gym trophy.
“We would want to thank Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) for being on board. We would also like to thank the National COVID-19 Task Force for finding it fit and having the trust in us to approve the tournament and for being able to stay within the guidelines mapped out by the National COVID-19 Task Force,” Ninvalle concluded.
