Rose Hall Town Jammers (RHTJ) secured the Best Gym title when the first edition of the 2024 Pepsi/Mike Parris Under-16 School Boys and Girls Boxing Championship was conducted on Saturday (January 20) at the Andrew ‘Six Head’ Lewis gym in Albouystown.
When the dust settled, RHTJ emerged the overall winner, with Pace and Power finishing in the silver medal position in the five-team tournament.
The achievement resulted in Gregory ‘Chassis’ Cort of RHTJ walking away with the Best Coach title.
Meanwhile, Ken Harvey of Pace and Power copped the Best Boxer accolade. Also, the Best Referee/Judge award was captured by Arthur Scipio.
The other gyms that competed were Bayley Boxing Gym, Andrew ‘Six Head’ Lewis and Forgotten Youth Foundation. Ten fights were staged in this staging of the monthly competition.
President of the Guyana Boxing Association Steve Ninvalle said, “Our U-16 championship, which is the backbone of Guyana’s dominance within the English-speaking Caribbean, will continue in its current format of at least one monthly iteration. Moreover, the resuscitation of other gyms will add to the flavour and competitive nature of the event, as seven gyms are expected to participate in the next iteration.”
He further added, “Youth programmes are the bedrock of the association’s developmental agenda and will always encompass the overall objective and architecture of the entity, which is to create a sustainable ecosystem for the discipline’s continued growth. This age group is unquestionably the most important, as it serves as the bridge and conduit between the amateur and professional strata. The importance of this platform cannot be quantified.”
In 2023, more than 18 stagings of the competition, which is administered by the GBA, were conducted. The entity is scheduled to surpass the aforementioned number during the current calendar year.
The strategy, which serves primarily as a high-performance structure to better equip pugilists for the rigours of international competition, is supervised and administered by technical and experienced trainers- national coach Lennox Daniels, technical director Terrence Poole, and Cuban coach Francisco Roldan.
The event also forms part of Guyana’s preparatory phase for the annual Caribbean School Boys and Junior Championship.