Guyana cop 6 gold, 2 silver in brutal title defence
By Michelangelo Jacobus
In front of a small but vociferous crowd at the National Gymnasium on Sunday night, Guyana’s junior boxers produced some of their best performances to reign supreme on the final night of the “Nuff Cuff” Caribbean Schoolboys/Juniors Boxing Championships.
Guyana retained the overall title with six gold medals, two silvers while Trinidad and Tobago claimed four gold and four silver medals.
Top Performers at the “Nuff Cuff” Caribbean Schoolboys/Junior Boxing Championship
In the first international bout, the 60Kg Youth final, Guyana’s Ryan Albert went pound-for-pound with his opponent Kareem Boyce of St Lucia in the opening rounds. The two were battling for dear life when Albert seized and opening and landed a couple of hefty left hooks and right crosses to leave Boyce reeling in the opening minutes of the third round. Albert was adjudged the winner after Boyce received three standing eight counts.
In the highly anticipated matchup between Blessing Waldropt (T&T) and Shaquille Wright who represented Guyana in the 57Kg Juniors final, there was an upset as Wright handed Waldropt a TKO in the second round.
Waldropt who was touted by his coaches as a top contender for the gold medal simply could not handle the energy and the fistic fury of Wright as he pummeled his way to the gold.
Brian Harris came up against Dario Cheeseman in the final matchup of the night in the 75Kg Junior final and treated the crowd to a round and some of good boxing as he utilized his quick feet and fists to good effect.
The Guyanese junior pugilist showed remarkable skill and timing to land solid blows to the chin of Cheeseman as well as a number of body shots. After three standing eight counts the referee adjudged Harris the winner in the second round via TKO to give Guyana their third gold medal of the night.
Earlier, Donte Powlette of Barbados was dominated Jamaican Rushwan McKinney in their 81Kg Youth final when a couple of missed punches caused him (Powlette) to injure himself which meant McKinney was adjudged the winner.
In one of the more exciting encounters Denzil Massey (T&T) went back and forth with Tevin Brewster (Barbados) as they fought all of their three rounds, it was a close contest as both boxers were cautious only attacking at the most opportune of moments, eventually Denzil Massey was adjudged the winner via split decision to take the gold in the 63Kg Youth final.
Nathan Ferrari of St Lucia showed that he is one to look for in the future as he totally outclassed his Jamaican opponent Daniel Hylton to win unanimously in their 64Kg Youth Final.
Adjudged Best Youth Performer, Trinidadian Nickell Joseph deservedly stopped Jerone Enniss (Jamaica) in the third round of their 75Kg Youth final as he connected with repeated uppercuts and jabs to condemn the Jamaican to three standing eight counts on his way to taking the gold medal.
