From Guyana Times

On Thursday evening, Minister within the Education Ministry Nicolette Henry, officially declared open the Caribbean Boxing Championship under the theme “One Voice, One Goal, One Caribbean.”

This competition, which is being held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, brings together 13 teams from the Caribbean. They are Anguilla, Antigua, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Jamaica, St Maarten, St Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.

In her remarks, Minister Henry recognised that this is the first time in decades that such a large contingent is in Guyana for the sport of boxing. She expressed her belief in a quote by Nelson Mandela, which states “Sports has the power to change the world.”

“Here in Guyana we have taken a bold step of merging education with sport because we the Government believes that integration of sport and education can beat poverty, underdevelopment and ignorance and can give people the tools to help themselves,” Minister Henry posited.

Additionally, this merger she said, seizes the power and potential of sport to ensure that ‘education and sport for all’ has a lasting impact on all people of this country.

The Minister acknowledged that boxing is a sport that has a proud history and tradition in Guyana whereby the country has earned an Olympic medal and more than four world titles. In this regard, it is hoped that the tournament will be the first step in re-energising the sport in the Caribbean region.

The competition seeks to bring out the best in Caribbean boxers and at the same time functions as a selection tool for the 2016 Commonwealth Games in Australia.

Director of Sport Christopher Jones, in his remarks expressed his hope that Guyana can medal once again at the Olympics. He added that he expects to see good boxing during the competition. Jones also commended the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association for playing its parts in hosting the activity.

Steve Ninvalle, the President of the Guyana Boxing Association, recalled a meeting held earlier this year where the heads of the Caribbean boxing associations met and commenced plans for this competition. He added that as a unified force much more can be expected from Caribbean amateur boxers.

Already much is being done to develop the sport of boxing in the Caribbean. This effort is being driven by a Steering Committee that was set up by the Caribbean Boxing Association. The committee is led by Kathy Harper-Hall from Barbados.

While addressing the gathering, she commended Guyana from taking up the responsibility of hosting the competition on short notice.

Harper-Hall illustrated that more attention is being placed on young boxers because the sport almost died several years ago. As such, competitions like these are crucial to the sport.

Head of the Guyana Olympic Association, KA Juman Yassin, noted that these competitions help with the qualifying component of international tournament. Yassin urged the boxers to stay clear of doping, especially since no boxer in the Caribbean has ever been found guilty of such.

Meanwhile, the managers of the French Guiana team presented special tokens to Ninvalle and Harper-Hall for their efforts in boxing development.

IMAGE: From left: CBA Steering Committee head Kathy Harper-Hall, Sport Minister Nicolette Henry, GOA President KA Juman Yassin and NSC member Aliann Pompey

For more on this story go to: http://www.guyanatimesgy.com/2015/11/28/caribbean-boxing-championship-underway/