New boxing officials trained in ‘remarkable’ seminar

Close to two dozen boxing referee/judge assessors have, over the weekend, successfully completed their introductory knowledge or upgraded their knowledge of the sport through a training seminar facilitated by the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA).
The training was conducted by the Caribbean’s only three-star referee/judge, James Beckles of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, who, upon the distribution of certificates to participants, deemed the programme remarkable.
“Well, it’s been remarkable, because normally I would come here for a longer period, but I only had like three days to work with these guys, brand new officials. The good thing about it is that they came in fresh, they had no baggage, nothing. They were fresh faces, fresh way of thinking and everything,” Beckles related.
Beckles further shared, “So you guys have seen the products of that, you have seen some in the ring; but most of all, you have seen the scoring, and I don’t know if you have seen a difference in the scoring, but there were no complaints here in the tournament thus far, and the majority of the officials we were using were the brand- new officials.”

Quizzed about the potential he saw in the week-long programme, Beckles noted that Guyana has a good new crop of officials. He singled out 12- year-old Jumaine Moore, who was the youngest of the set in the training seminar.
About the group of new Referee/Judges, Beckles said, “The President indicated to me that this was one of his things that he had on his agenda, and he wanted to get it done as quickly as possible. So, we made it come through for him, he has a brand-new crop of officials, and I think (it is) a really good crop.”
Turning his attention to the 12-year-old referee/ judge Jumaine Moore, Beckles highlighted, “If you look at the scoring, he was right up there with everybody else, which might be shocking to some. But, even in the evaluation, he did pretty well, and I think he has a future.”

Beckles went on to share his views on the Caribbean Championships hosted over the weekend, highlighting that Guyana and Trinidad are far ahead of their counterparts.
“It’s getting there, the Caribbean still has a lot of work to do, as you can see from this tournament. What we need (are) more competitions like this. Guyana usually has the most tournaments among Caribbean countries annually. Caribbean countries need this kind of tournament. Countries like Grenada, Dominica and some of the other countries, they don’t have boxing at all,” Beckles explained.
Further, Beckles had this to say about Guyana and T&T’s superiority at that level, “So this is a wonderful thing, it enhances the skill of the people around the Caribbean; but you can see from what happen at the tournament (that) Guyana and probably Trinidad and Tobago (are) far advanced from the other countries.”
The training seminar began on Wednesday last, and was hosted at the National Racquet Center on Woolford Avenue, Georgetown. (Jemima Holmes)