Amateur Boxing Year in review
Amateur Boxing Association enjoyed a successful year
By Michael DaSilva
Stabroek News
December 29, 2006
FLASH BACK ! Dexter Ray (left) throws a left jab at Colin Hercules (right) who goes on the defensive at the National Gymnasium during one of GABA cards this year in this Lawrence Fanfair photograph.
After staging eight successful tournaments, attending three regional and international ones and opening five new gyms, one can only sum up that the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) enjoyed a very successful year.
Added to these achievements is the opening of the first ever Boxing Academy in Guyana and the English speaking Caribbean and the resuscitation of the fistic sport in schools around Georgetown and on the East Coast of Demerara.
The GOA held discussions with the GABA which resulted in two of its boxers (Dexter Marques (flyweight) and Gordon Ross (middleweight) securing training scholarships in Cuba in preparation for the Melbourne Commonwealth games. They, however, failed to reach the medal rounds at the prestigious Games with Marques being eliminated in a second round fixture.
Marques and Fitzroy Richardson (light heavyweight) also attended the Central American and Caribbean Games held in the Dominican Republic again without much success.
A team of boxers represented Guyana at the Caribbean Championships in Trinidad and returned home with 17 medals, comprising nine gold medals, six silver and two bronze medals as Guyana finished second in both the junior and senior championships.
The GABA also hosted fighters from Trinidad at a Goodwill tournament.
The locals won six of the seven international bouts with the seventh declared a no contest.
Twelve gyms participated (over 75 boxers) in the national championships, the largest number in over two years.
Through the initiative of its hard working president Affeeze Khan, the GABA opened boxing gyms in Mocha, Bagotsville, Leguan, Buxton and Sophia. These gyms were all presented with boxing equipment and a coach was assigned to assist with teaching the basic skills of the sport.
Through Khan, the Georgetown City Consta-bulary gym, as well as the New Opportunity Corps and Police gyms were resuscitated and given new equipment.
The GABA also assisted with the refurbishing of the Bauxite Bombers Gym in Linden.
Several schools benefited from the expertise of boxing coaches Carl Franklyn and Evan Parris who conducted coaching sessions at the following schools:JE Burnham, FE Pollard, St. Sidwell's, Redeemer Sophia and Buxton Primary Schools as well as Lodge and Houston Community High Schools and the response has been extremely positive.
Franklyn, who was presented with a motor cycle to get around to the various schools and gyms, is also in charge at the Boxing Academy situated at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue.
For the first time in many years, the GABA was represented by its president at the IABA Congress held in the Dominican Republic.
The GABA staged a referee/judges' course which saw 47 participants benefiting from the expertise of an international referee/judge.
The association closed off the year on a high note, staging 19 bouts at the Andrew `Six Head' Lewis Gym earlier this month.