The Guyana Boxing Association (GBA) is actively preparing to stage the fourth annual Caribbean School Boys and Juniors Tournament in a matter of months’ time.
Guyana Boxing Association President, Steve Ninvalle
This tournament, which sees participation from several Caribbean countries, such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and St. Lucia, gives young amateur boxers an opportunity to not only showcase their skills, but to test their limits against their Caribbean counterparts.
The Pepsi/ Mike Parris U-16 tournaments which are hosted locally have, in the past three years, been used as a means of preparing youngsters for the big stage that the Caribbean School Boys and Juniors Tournament affords, and the situation will be no different in 2019.
The first of several tournaments will be hosted next Sunday, April 21, at the National Gymnasium. Usually, a competition on this scale is hosted at the Andrew ‘Six Head’ Lewis Gym in Albouystown, but GBA President Steve Ninvalle has been able to acquire the gymnasium, which will give the young boxers a feel of the much larger venue.
Ninvalle is very grateful for this development. “We’re thankful that the National Sports Commission could’ve given us approval to use that arena,” he declared.
This fourth Caribbean School Boys and Juniors Tournament is expected to get a major boost from the expected participation of boxing powerhouses Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and from a gym in the USA.
Ninvalle disclosed that his team at the Pan American Games qualifier in Managua, Nicaragua was partially used to spark the interest of other countries in the Caribbean tournament. He disclosed that it was at this event that Puerto Rico confirmed their participation.
It is expected that the Guyanese boxers will be working even harder to match skills with their foreign boxing counterparts.
“So it means that we have to step up as a country with our preparations, because these are two powerhouses in boxing in Latin America — the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico,” Ninvalle explained.
The Caribbean School Boys and Juniors Tournament will run from August 16 -18 at the National Gymnasium. Guyana has won the competition for three years straight, and will be looking to repeat the feat this year.
