While the COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on most sports and the way it’s played; the thought that sport could resume soon is alive and well, even with the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines across the world.
While this seems to be a positive for all sports, Guyana Boxing Association President Steve Ninvalle is concerned about a number of areas that may affect the discipline and its athletes.
In a sit-down with the Evening News Sport, Ninvalle shared that his priority is the mental state of local pugilists.
“We don’t know how much that is going to affect our boxers but then we need to have them psychologically evaluated. Not only about the crowds, but how this pandemic has really affected them,” Ninvalle explained.
Guyana Boxing Association President Steve Ninvalle
Piggy backing off his first point, Ninvalle highlighted that his next concern is the effect the global pandemic has had on the sport in general and how best competitions will be organized.
“February 15 last year was the last competition we would have had, we would have had more National Open or National Intermediate, no National Novice, you know, no Caribbean School Boys and Juniors tournament, no International tournament for over a year, so matter of fact the boxers who are a marked go to the Olympic qualifiers, have not fought in a competition since December, 2019. Yes, they’ve been training but they’ve had no competition since December 2019,” Ninvalle related, in drawing a parallel to the need for competition.
The GBA President added, “So, it is important that we get them back into competition, that we get their feet wet again. And we trying to do as much as possible as to make that a reality. When this is all over and I hope sooner than later, then we’ll have to take a panoramic view of the effects of the COVID-19 and hopefully, we do not have a return to such a state.”
The Boxing boss went on to share that currently, the biggest struggle is to keep boxers in training, citing that the lack of competitions has caused some of the group to go astray.
“We also find ourselves, not in a unique position again, of having to cultivate, start, manufacture other ways of keeping our boxers to the fold, because many people are wandering off. Because of the fact that there’s no competition going on and if there’s no competition, it’s hard to have people training also,” Ninvalle underscored.
“So, we’ve got we’re trying to come up with effective ways to keep them and not having to lasso people left, right and center.”
At the moment, two 4-member teams are in training for the Youth World Boxing championships in Kielce, Poland and the Tokyo Olympic Qualifiers in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in April and May respectively. The dates for those competitions are April 10-24 and May 10-16 respectively, with the Tokyo Olympics slated for July 23 to August 8. (Jemima Holmes)
