Commonwealth Games 2022: Allicock advances to quarter-finals

…swimmers register more PBs

Keevin Allicock is just one victory away from medalling at the 2022 Commonwealth Games following a Round of 16 victory on Monday.
Allicock, once again fighting out of the red corner, came up against Sri Lanka’s Jeewantha Nisshanka in the crucial bout.
Cheered on by his fellow Guyanese athletes, Allicock was lightning fast in the ring and landed decisive blows on his opponent, which led to a unanimous decision victory.

Keevin Allicock and Coaches Terrence Poole and Sebert Blake

Scoring the fight were judges from Italy, England, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago and Fiji. The only time Allicock did not receive a full 10-point score was in the second round, with a point being deducted by the Trinidadian judge.
The Guyanese pugilist moves on to the quarter-finals, where it is expected that he will face Keoma Ali Al-Ahmadieh of Canada. Al-Ahmadieh booked his quarter-final spot by way of split decision victory (3-2) over New Zealand’s Charlie Senior, also on Monday.
“First of all, I want to thank God for the victory, all the praise and thanks belongs to him, you know,” Allicock shared in a post-fight interview.
He continued, “Like I said, God is in charge of every bout. I trust him, I don’t really have a plan; God is my plan. So, I went in there with confidence, knowing that I’m coming out victorious and that’s what happened.”
The boxer went on to assess the differences between his round-of-32 and round-of-16 fights, noting that he was more relaxed in Monday’s encounter.
Allicock explained, “My first fight, I wasn’t like comfortable, but still, I’m grateful for the victory, because I won unanimously. But this fight, I’m much more strong. God has given me more strength and this fight, I fought very relaxed and I picked my shots and controlled the fight.”
“We did put in a lot of work, because some of the time when I finished training with the Coaches, I would go at Space 2.0 and I would do my extra training. So, I did a lot of work, but it’s not just the work that got me here, it’s the prayers,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, also at the Commonwealth Games on Monday, Paul Mahaica swam 58.96 seconds in the men’s 100m butterfly to finish second. Though setting a new Personal Best (PB), he did not advance to the next round.
Olympian Aleka Persaud was fourth in the women’s 100m freestyle with a time of one minute, 1.03s, which was not good enough to see her qualify for the next round.
Patrice Mahaica, also competing in the women’s 100m freestyle, recorded a time of one minute, 4.60s. She finished seventh in her heat.