… team will be ready for Olympic Qualifiers, says Francisco
Constant training and conditioning in Cuba is paying off well for the quad of Guyanese boxers who are readying themselves for Olympic qualification.
Keevin Allicock
The conclusion was drawn after the team tested, what is now more than a month of rigorous training, during a tournament that was hosted in the Santis Spiritus Province, Cuba last week.
Light welterweight boxer and team captain Colin Lewis was unable to compete in the tournament, owing to a bout of influenza. However, his teammates showed up and showed down for the Guyanese contingent.
Caribbean bantamweight champion Keevin Allicock was once again the shining star as he registered a unanimous 3-0 victory over Victor Abreu following an entertaining encounter with the Cuban. Middleweight Desmond Amsterdam also found himself in a nail- biting bout, but eventually lost to Jorge Cuellar, following a close point decision.
Dennis Thomas, the light heavyweight in the Guyanese group, got off to a thrilling start in his encounter with Lazaro Fiss. However, the bout took an unexpected turn when Thomas hurt his hand. As a result of this, Coach Roland Francisco stopped the encounter in the second round.
The Guyanese boxers: Keevin Allicock, Colin Lewis, Desmond Amsterdam and Dennis Thomas
The four boxers are now in the middle of their three month training stint in Cuba, which was undertaken in order to prepare the Olympic hopefuls for the Olympic Qualifiers in Argentina, next month. The Guyana Olympic Association (GOA) had contributed US$15,000 to the Cuban trip, while the National Sports Commission (NSC) and by extension the Government of Guyana, made an initial donation of $1M. The boxers along with Coach Terrence Poole departed Guyana in January 4.
The Olympic qualifiers in Argentina, on the other hand, will run from March 26- April3. Thus far, the boxers have little worries about getting to the qualifiers since the GOA, through President K.A. Juman Yassin has pledged $1M for the qualifier expenses.
According to Coach Roland Francisco he is quite pleased with the performance of the boxers so far and he went on to declare that each member of the team will be ready for the Olympic Qualifiers next month. In a bid to keep them in competition mode, the Guyanese quad are expected to participate in another tournament next week.
