Defending champions Guyana successfully retained their overall title in the Winfred Braithwaite Caribbean Schoolboys and Juniors Championships Sunday night with local star Shaquain James being adjudged the overall best fighter at the event’s conclusion on Sunday evening.
Guyana built on their five gold medal haul from the Saturday evening as they tallied an additional six divisional titles at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue.
James defeated Michel Medica of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) in the Youth Welterweight 60KG final.
In addition to the exploits of James, Tiquan Sampson, Leon Albert, Raheem Peters, Akeelah Vancooten, and Matthew Thomas recorded gold medal performances.
Sampson defeated Prince Charles of T&T in the Junior Lightweight 60KG Final, whilst Albert defeated Jazari Narine Mayers of Barbados in the Youth Bantamweight decider, and Peters (Guyana) bested Barbadian Abishai Baptiste in the Youth Light-welterweight 63KG title match.
Likewise, Vancooten defeated Shania Nunez of T&T in the Junior Girls 50KG decider whilst Thomas defeated compatriot Wayne Castello in the Youth – 52KG Final.
Meanwhile, president of the Guyana Boxing Association, Steve Ninvalle described the tournament as the best ever.
“I think the tournament was one of the best we would have held if not the best, the reason being that we’ve seen now, the participation of so many females and I’m very, very heartened by the fact that there are so many females in the sport,” he told Stabroek Sport last evening.
Ninvalle said that while Guyana was undoubtedly the standout team, some of the local boxers were made to dig deep as the boxers from the other countries had shown tremendous improvement.
“Additionally, I think that we were well prepared and we were able to withstand any opposition that was offered and I must thank the coaches for doing that.
We’ve seen improvements in the skill level of all the boxers not only those from Guyana but Trinidad, Barbados, St Lucia and Grenada,” he declared.
Junior Olympics
The tournament is the brainchild of Ninvalle who said that he was satisfied with not only the growth but the outlook for the tournament.
“The Guyana Boxing Association and many other countries within the Caribbean, view this as our Junior Olympics. It was birthed in Guyana in 2016, this is the sixth edition that were having and the seventh edition will be even better,” he said.
According to Ninvalle, who is also the Director of Sport, the success of the tournament has given his association a fillip so that next year, the tournament will be not only bigger…but better.
“We will go into much more planning. We expect much more countries participating and as you know exposure is very, very important. You know that we’ve been saying that we need to expose the most important department of the sport which is the nursery.
“What is also very, very important is that we’ve been able to gather 16 new referees/judges to that department making a total of 28. I want to thank James Beckles, of Trinidad and Tobago for accepting our offer to come here and do that seminar as all of our referees/judges are now certified.
“I would also like to thank Brigadier Omar Khan of the Guyana Defence Force, they assisted us tremendously with the tournament,” Ninvalle ended.
Complete Results
(1) Matthew Thomas (Guyana) defeated Wayne Castello (Guyana) – Youth – 52KG Final
(2) Makieve Bellille (T&T) defeated Jaquan Grant (Barbados) – Schoolboys 57KG Final
(3) Leon Albert (Guyana) defeated Jazari Narine Mayers (Barbados) – Youth Bantamweight Final
(4) Raheem Peters (Guyana) defeated Abishai Baptiste (Barbados) – Youth Light-welterweight – 63KG Final
(5) John Didier (St Lucia) defeated Joshua Lewis (T&T) – Youth Light Heavyweight 80KG Final
(6) Akeelah Vancooten (Guyana) defeated Shania Nunez (T&T) – Junior Girls – 50KG Final
(7) Tiquan Sampson (Guyana) defeated Prince Charles (T&T) – Junior Lightweight 60KG Final
(8) Norddisha Williams (Grenada) defeated Tianna Moore (Guyana) – Youth Girls 80+KG Final
(9) Shakquain James (Guyana) defeated Michel Medica (T&T) – Youth Welterweight 60KG
