SIX-YEAR-OLD Stephon Castello and eight-year-old Vishal Singh were the first boxers to officially step into the ring and box in the Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis Boxing Gymnasium, after the training facility was commissioned in Callender Street, Albouystown, yesterday.
The former World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight champion in whose honour the gym was constructed for giving Guyana the country’s first world title, cut the ribbon with Miss Guyana, Odessa Phillips.
An outdoor ceremony preceded the ribbon-cutting amid a peaceful but vocal protest against the alleged link between Minister Ronald Gajraj and a death squad.
The opening of the $24 million facility marked the realisation of a promise made by President Bharrat Jagdeo when Lewis achieved the historic feat on February 17, 2001, knocking out James Page in 1:49 minutes of the seventh round.
President Jagdeo recalled that the fight was during the campaign for general elections and Guyanese forgot about political affiliations and rooted for Lewis. He even ended up at an opposition-organised function in Albouystown where he was well treated.
FIRST bout: Vishal Singh (left) and Stephon Castello exchange punches in a peewee exhibition fight. Cullen Bess-Nelson photos)
“We were all very proud that night to be Guyanese. Andrew, there will be many champions after you, but you were the first. But it goes beyond Andrew. Andrew has set a shining example, especially for our young people, that if you work hard, that if you persevere in whatever you want to achieve, you can accomplish it.”
The patron acknowledged that completing the gym, one of 300 projects under the President’s Youth Choice Initiative, took a long time, but said the man behind the project, Odinga Lumumba, must take the blame. He pledged government’s continued support of the community.
Mayor Hamilton Green chaired the ceremony, pointing out that the Lewis’ historic world title came at a time when boxing seemed to be waning; after a glittering career in the amateur ring and an equally good performance in the professional ring.
“He gave us the world championship at the appropriate time.”
Green praised George Oprecht, well known as Canchie, who started the Young Achievers Gym in which Lewis learnt his trade and on which site the new gym now stands.
“Canchie has done a fantastic job, not only producing boxers in this community, but also producing young men who can take their place in society.”
Green, who is the chairman of the gym’s board, disclosed that the building is not only a boxing gym.
“It goes beyond the confines of physical exercise and that it would provide the youths in this community the opportunity for both physical and intellectual inclination.”
There will be a library and a lecture room where teachers and other resource personnel will instruct the young people, giving them a chance to broaden their horizons.
Green bemoaned the Caribbean cultural flaw of people being unable to stay at the top.
Presidential Adviser on Community Development, Lumumba, gave a background to the project and introduced the board members.
“This facility should have been built 30 years ago. In essence, it is very long overdue.”
The other members of the board are Lumumba (secretary), Stanford Solomon (treasurer), Philomena Sahoye-Shury, MP (sssistant secretary/treasurer), Guyana Amateur Boxing Association president K. Juman-Yassin, Guyana Boxing Board of Control secretary Trevor Arno, Lt Col Francis Abraham, Assistant Police Commissioner Larry George, Director of Sport Neil Kumar, former boxers Marcel Daniels and Michael Parris, Vic Insanally, Andre Howard, Maurice ‘Bizzy’ Boyce, Michael Goodman, Randolph Thorne, Maurice Pile, Demerara Distillers Limited Marketing Manager Anthonius Raghubansie and Vaulda Lawrence MP.
Parris, Guyana’s only Olympic medallist, was named manager of the facility and Lumumba disclosed that DDL would pay half his salary.
Oprecht spoke about his involvement in boxing in Albouystown after moving to the community in 1979, starting out with two boys -- Dan and Everton Dick -- running with him in the mornings. That attracted other boys to join them. He channelled their fighting instincts into boxing.
“The youths liked to fight -- but in the wrong way. They tend to be violent and fight in street brawls.”
The coach disclosed that the name Young Achievers was taken from a youth club in the area and Green was responsible for constructing the gym at the site of the new facility, where Commonwealth champion Andrew Murray, the first Caribbean champion Richard Howard and Andre Purlette, among others, practised .
Oprecht thanked the president for keeping his promise in having the modern gym constructed.
“He stood to his word and today we have that gym.”
Trevor Arno made remarks for the boxing bodies and Michael Benjamin moved the Vote of Thanks.
Five exhibition bouts were staged in the spanking new ring, with Singh and Castello fighting first. The first female bout was between Eslyn Quallis and Mowella Forde. The other match-ups were Jaffar Simpson and Anthony Abrams; Jamal Morgan and Kielice Ross; and Andrew Murray Jr and Jamal Jabbal.