After gold medal, Jackman sets sights on Commonwealth Games

A piece of Guyanese boxing history was made last Thursday night in Ecuador when Abiola Jackman toppled Ecuador’s Daniela Espana in the women’s 81kg final of the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC) Elite Championships for a gold medal.
It was the first gold medal any Guyanese boxer, male or female, had won at the championships.
Upon her return to the Land of Many Waters over the weekend, Jackman was greeted by several Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) Executives, including President Steve Ninvalle and Vice President Dr Marissa Parris in a modest welcome; likely a precursor to a grander celebration to come.
There, Jackman credited her win to good preparation and spoke of her mindset before the bout.

“Well, it was an overwhelming performance. I trained hard, I prepared well for this tournament, so I go out there and I execute my best,” Jackman shared.
She continued about the championship winning bout, “I didn’t see my opponent at the weigh-in or general in the hotel and so forth, but I saw her the night of the fight and when I saw her, I said ‘this is an easy opponent for you, Abi, just go and dominate, because you know the work that you put in’.”
Quizzed about what’s next on her agenda, Jackman revealed intentions to compete at next year’s Commonwealth Games.
She divulged, “This means a lot to me. I’m looking forward to attend the Commonwealth Games next year, so I’m going back to the drawing board and do what I have to do. Train hard, get a lot of sparring, hope I have some more competitions and some more overseas training session to get ready for Commonwealth Games.”
Meanwhile, GBA President Ninvalle spoke to the significance of Jackman’s achievement.
Ninvalle expressed, “This is an Independence gift that we have from young Miss Jackman. You know, it’s a lot of hard work that she would’ve put in. Especially maybe a week or two before she went, we had several conversations on her path and what she can choose and how she can choose. I’m glad to say we’ve seen this come to fruition, we’ve seen her work harder and this has created history for Guyana and it will inspire so many other young female athletes.”
The GBA boss went on to unveil plans for foreign training for Guyanese boxers like Jackman.
“As a matter of fact, Ecuador will be our new stomping ground because we plan to send a team of boxers there to do some training. We have so many international tournaments that are coming up right now that this will be a great inspiration,” the GBA President disclosed.
Apart from Jackman, Desmond Amsterdam is the only other Guyanese to win an AMBC medal, a bronze back in 2022.