GBA proposes stipend for boxers/coaches

Feb 05, 2017 Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....d-for-boxerscoaches/

A selected group of boxers and coaches affiliated to the Guyana boxing Association is earmarked to start receiving stipends once the nod is given by the Guyana Olympic Association. The recommendation for stipends is included in the GBA four-year strategic plan handed over to GOA president K Juman Yassin last week.
The plan charts the course to the 2020 Olympic in Tokyo, Japan. The boxing association has recommended $60,000 (sixty thousand dollar) per month for seven boxers. The group includes Caribbean middleweight champion ‘Dynamite’ Desmond Amsterdam, heavyweight Jason ‘AK47’ Barker and Caribbean Development Tournament Best Youth Boxer Christopher Moore.
The stipend would assist in young pugilist remaining focused while preparing for local and major international engagements. The document also proposes payment to a selected number of coaches but on a lesser scale than that recommended for boxers.
Many of the top boxers find it challenging to balance training with work commitments hence the importance of the stipend. The boxing association kick starts this year’s activity with an international competition to be staged at the National Gymnasium on February 19.
That would be followed by the National Novices competition in March and the Caribbean Schoolboys and Junior tournament in April. In May Guyana is scheduled to send a three-man team of boxers to Azerbaijan to participate in the Islamic Games.
The Youth Commonwealth Games, The World Championships and the first Inter Guianas Boxing Tournament are just a few other international competitions on the packed GBA calendar this year. The association president Steve Ninvalle said that he is adopting a “wait and see” approach.
“We have provided the document as requested now we would have to wait and see the level of assistance given. The GOA has been helpful in the past and there is no reason for me to think that there would be a change in their modus operandi now,” Ninvalle said. The GOA is not the only entity that would be receiving the document.
The plan, dubbed ‘Towards Tokyo with Tenacity and Hard Work’ would also be handed over to the National Sport Commission.