Winfield Braithwaite School Boys and Juniors rescheduled

…Ninvalle stresses importance of tournament

The Winfield Braithwaite Caribbean School Boys and Juniors boxing tournament which was scheduled for next weekend (August 19th to 21st) has been rescheduled. This disclosure has been made by President of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), Steve Ninvalle.

In an invited comment, Ninvalle confirmed that the tournament has been postponed by one week so as to allow travelling teams more time to meet Guyana’s COVID-19 entry requirements.
He informed, “We had to push it back by one week because we are trying to make sure that the overseas participants can meet Guyana’s COVID-19 entry requirements. We have confirmation from Trinidad, the Bahamas and St. Lucia, and we expect Saint Maarten and Grenada also to be a part.”

This tournament will now take place over the weekend of August 26th to 28th at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) on Homestretch Avenue.
Embracing the opportunity to update on other aspects of the eagerly-awaited Youth tournament, Ninvalle revealed what the regional competition would look like.
“Trinidad and Tobago are slated to send the largest overseas contingent. They have nine, and they will be followed by the Bahamas. Once we get all the COVID-19 entry requirements met, we are off to have a very good tournament, for want of better words. It is a much-needed international competition for the Caribbean,” Ninvalle disclosed.
He added, “It is one of the most (important), if not the most important, competition that the Caribbean will have, simply because of the fact that it is tailored, points to, and is aimed at, developing the nursery of the sport. The nursery, of course, is your most important (repository).”
Although having had to reschedule the tournament, the GBA has stuck to its initial schedule in getting the local team ready for the competition. Last month, the GBA announced the names of 30 youth boxers who have been shortlisted to go into training, and should they impress, they would be handed the opportunity to represent Guyana at the regional tournament.
Those boxers hail from the following gyms: Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF), Pace and Power, Rose Hall Jammers (RHJ), Vergenoegen, and Young Achievers, which were among some of the standout gyms during this year’s biweekly Pepsi/Mike Parris Under-16 Boxing tournaments.
On this topic, Ninvalle said, “The coaching staff will soon select the national team which will go into encampment. It is a very exciting time, regardless of how many overseas participants we get.”
The coaching staff comprises Francisco Roldan, who has been handpicked to work with the team; Clifton Moore, Gregory Cort, Lennox Daniels and Sebert Blake.
Ninvalle has been keen to underscore the importance of the tournament, and how it stands to benefit the nursery of boxing across the Caribbean.
“The Caribbean had no way of assessing where its nursery was. We (the Caribbean) didn’t have any U-16, school boy or junior tournaments. So, what was happening was that all of our Caribbean countries were having their nurseries operate in silos, individually, and there was no way of assessing where each country was as it relates to another nation,” the GBA President reflected.
He added this about the importance of the Winfield Braithwaite tournament, “We are pushing ahead with it regardless, because Guyana sees the nursery of our sport of boxing as very important. That opinion is shared by one of our closest partners in Trinidad and Tobago, and (by) several others. Mr. Cecil Forde (President of the T&T Boxing Association), Mr. David Christopher (President of the St Lucia Boxing Association), Vincent Strachan (President of the Bahamas Boxing Association) and several other presidents in the Caribbean understand this. We cannot afford to let this die, or we would be doing a great disservice to the sport and those who elected us.”
The Winfield Braithwaite School Boys and Juniors tournament was first hosted in 2016, and Guyana has won it every year, up until a COVID-19-related hiatus in 2020 and 2021.