Top local Bantamweight boxer Keevin Allicock will represent Guyana at the Tokyo Olympic Games from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
On Tuesday, President of the Guyana Boxing Association, Steve Ninvalle, confirmed Allicock’s qualification, noting that the boxing fraternity is excited by the news.
Allicock joins athlete Aliyah Abrams, table tennis player Chelsea Edghill and swimmers Andrew Fowler and Jamila Sanmoogan, who will rep the Golden Arrowhead at the global showpiece.
Guyana last had representation by a boxer at the Olympics 25 years ago, and Ninvalle said that a unified approach is now needed to increase Allicock’s chances of medaling at the event.
“Obviously, we’re very happy,” Ninvalle told News Room Sport.
“It was a lot of hard work on Keevin’s part. On the part of the executives of the Guyana Boxing Association we did our part also, getting him to the strategic and needed tournaments, which would have allowed him to qualify.”
“It just shows the need that we have for exposing our boxers. As you know, 2020 the Olympics were not kept and in 2021 the qualifiers were not kept, so they had to go to the rankings, and we would have been able to pull that off through a tripartite request that the Guyana Boxing Association would have sent in.”
Ninvalle added: “We will need all resources and all hands on deck if we’re to get him anywhere near the medal round; this includes international training camps, which we’re actually working on.”
The Boxing Association head lauded the work of Allicock’s coach Sebert Blake, and expressed gratitude to the Guyana Olympic Association and the government of Guyana for their support over the years.
Notably, Guyana’s lone Olympic medal was won by boxing in 1980, when Michael Parris copped bronze in Moscow.
