Michael Parris to visit Orealla for sports outreach

–Presentation of punching bag in the works

Guyana’s lone Olympic medallist, the boxing star Michael Parris, will this weekend accompany Minister of Social Cohesion, Dr George Norton, to an outreach in Orealla, Region Six, where Dr Norton will engage residents on various issues relative to their development.
Holding responsibility for Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Norton would also be meeting with sports officials and agencies as the Social Cohesion Ministry tries to fulfil its mandate by implementing a number of sports programmes in the community.
This outreach comes just as the boxing and football coaches attached to the National Sports Commission (NSC) begin conducting sessions in the village.
Football coach Gordon Braithwaite will be hosting football camps, while boxing coach Orlando ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers will be training prospective boxers.
Minister Norton will also be presenting the community with A punching bag as a way of promoting boxing, not only as a hobby, but as a serious Olympic sport. He is hoping that Parris will be on hand to motivate and inspire young boxers to keep training.
“We want them to see Mr. Parris as a living example of a boxing champion, an Olympian; Guyana’s lone Olympic medallist, above all,” Minister Norton noted.
“We want them to be inspired to even challenge Mr. Parris’s record,” he added.
In August 1980, Michael Anthony Parris created history at the Moscow Olympics when he became the first Guyanese to ever win a medal at the world’s largest sporting event. He copped a bronze medal after being defeated by Cuba’s Juan Hernández in the semifinals.