Two-day Virtual seminar for Referees/Judges starts August 8

President of the Guyana Boxing Association and Vice-President of the Americas Boxing Confederation (AMBC), Steve Ninvalle, has organised a two-day Virtual seminar for Referees/Judges of the English-speaking Caribbean, Haiti, Suriname and Curacao.

The seminar will be conducted by Chairman of the AIBA Referee/Judges Commission Ray Silvas of the USA and will run from August 8 to 9.  So far 149 participants from 17 countries have registered for the sessions. Guyana will be represented by eight officials.

The local team will be led by AIBA One stars Richard Braithwaite and Lawrence Assanah, and the country’s first and only AIBA certified International Technical Officer (ITO) Elton Chase. Jermaine Craig, Colin Rodney, Nicola Yhap, Shanice Agard and Denola Bristol are the other Guyanese.

The Referees/Judges seminar follows close on the heels of a coaches seminar run by AMBC a few weeks ago. Guyana was represented by Terrence Poole MS, Sebert Blake, Clive Atwell, Joseph Murray and Orlan Rogers.

Ninvalle said that the upcoming seminar was discussed with Silvas while the two were in Panama in January.

“Mr. Silvas was very eager to have this happen and we would have had cogent discussions in Panama. However, the advent of COVID-19 has forced us to make it a Virtual one,” Ninvalle said.

Ninvalle, also the Chairman of the Caribbean Steering Committee, added that a seminar to update coaches on the technical aspects associated with scoring of fights will be conducted soon after.

“If we are to train our fighters to win then it is important that our coaches understand what the referees and judges are looking for. A lot has changed from the 80s and 90s,” he said.