Pan American Games 2023: Allicock misses out on medal round

…swimmers also in action on Monday

With a boisterous smattering of Guyanese supporters in the stands, Keevin Allicock on Monday afternoon sought to book passage to the medal round of the men’s 66kg division at the 2023 Pan American Games; however, it was not to be as the Guyanese pugilist went down fighting to his American opponent.
Allicock, fighting out of the blue corner, came up against Jahmal Harvey of the USA in the quarterfinal round, the winner of which would move on to the semi-final and be guaranteed at least a bronze medal.

Harvey was the immediate aggressor from the get-go, firing shots almost instantaneously from the sound of the first bell. The Guyanese would then adjust to his opponent’s feisty tactics, making for an entertaining first round. However, the scores would not reflect such as all five of the judges scored 10-9 in the American’s favour.

Allicock approached the second round with much more intensity, landing many more power punches than in the previous round, but again his opponent was the better boxer on all the judges’ scorecards but one.
Though Allicock also fought valiantly in the third round, he would go on to lose the bout by way of a unanimous decision. The judges scored: 30-27, 29-28, 30-27, 30-27, 30-27.
Following the bout, Allicock expressed his thoughts on how he executed the three rounds.
“I gave it my best, I saw that the guy was a good fighter, fighting backwards, you know. We stick to the plan that me and my coach work with, which is attacking him; you know, fighting against the US is like fighting against the judge even though the judge decision is final. But like I said, I put my best foot forward and I tried pressing hard to get this victory this afternoon, but it didn’t go to plan,” Allicock shared.
Following probes, the pugilist went on to reveal that an injury has hampered his performance during the competition.

He divulged, “Who know me, know me. I don’t make excuses but I’ve been working with the therapist, I had injury in my shoulder, currently have an injury right now whereby I’m not getting to work the rotated cuff and like I said, that’s no excuse, but that was one of the things that was playing with me, even in the first fight; I tried to stop the opponent as fast as I can.”

Meanwhile, earlier on Monday, both local swimmers had their time in the pool.
Aleka Persaud first came within split seconds of rewriting yet another national swimming record, this time in the women’s 100m freestyle event.
Racing in Heat 1, Persaud stopped the clock at 1:00.96s for second place. The record, set by Persaud, stands at 1:00.67s.
The heat was won by Grenada’s Tilly Collymore in 59.87s while Paraguay’s Stefania Piccardo was third in 1:01.31s.
A few races later, Raekwon Noel placed third in the men’s 800m freestyle B final.
Noel clocked 8:34.68s for third place, while Cuba’s Rodolfo Mojarrieta was first in 8:19.66s and Puerto Rico’s Christian Bayo second in 8:20.52s.
The Pan American Games action will continue today, with Aleka Persaud in the pool once again.