Carib neighbours respond to Jamaica's call

Leighton Levy, Sunday Gleaner Writer

In early July, Jamaican boxers Reece Shagourie and Jovan Young qualified for the Pan Am Games set for Guadalajara, Mexico, in October. To get there, they had to overcome their challengers in the ring. To get them there, the Jamaica Boxing Board had to overcome some challenges of their own, but got some much needed help from its Caribbean brothers.

To get to Mexico in October, Jamaica's boxers had to book their places by using one of three qualifiers to earn their spots. They missed the first qualifier in Venezuela earlier this year, and fell well short of expectations in Ecuador in May. The Panama qualifiers between July 1 and 8 was their last chance to make good.

According to Leroy Brown, general secretary of the Jamaica Boxing Board, just getting the boxers to Panama was a significant challenge. The boxing board had no money and for the boxers to get to Panama they needed plane tickets from the United Kingdom, where they are based, and money for food and accommodation. Money was also needed to send a coach and a manager along with them.

The board got some assistance from Olympic Solidarity, but each boxer still needed about $170,000 to get to Panama to compete. In early June, Brown said, he spoke with the boxers and urged them to get as much help as they could from family, friends and well-wishers. In the meantime, he decided to pay his own way, but there was still need to send a coach.

Employing some cost-cutting creativity, Brown said the board sought the assistance of fellow boxing coaches from the region, who could step in as coaches when the need arose. Over the years, administrators and coaches from across the Caribbean developed close relationships forged when the now disbanded Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association (CABA) staged its annual tournaments in different Caribbean nations.

Useful allies

Since the end of CABA, a couple of years ago, regional administrators have not been in touch as much, but the friendships built over the years have endured.

The boxing board found useful allies in Floyd Seymour from The Bahamas and Terrence Poole from Guyana. Both men came to Jamaica's aid whenever their own fighters were not in action.

"I was totally thrilled. They put aside their countries and became Jamaicans whenever the Jamaicans fought," Brown said.

"I am really thrilled the way the guys responded to us and helped." There was even some good-natured ribbing whenever it was time to be in Jamaica's corner during competition.

Both men worked well with helping to prepare the Jamaican boxers, Brown said, even when Shagourie was going through a crisis situation when his hand became swollen after his first-round fight. The fighter had to have his hand iced in the hope that the swelling would recede for his next fight. He was eventually taken to hospital where X-rays showed that there were no broken bones. Fortunately, the swelling receded in time for his next fight the following night.

There was also a potential threat of conflicting schedules as Seymour had an opponent in the middleweight division and there was the potential of a clash with his challenger and Young. However, as fate would have it, the Bahamian fighter lost in the first round of competition.

Meanwhile, Shagourie had to win two fights to make it to the final. He lost the first round of his fight against Elmer Salguero, but came back strong to win the remaining two rounds to take the fight seven to four. That was when he got the scare when his hand was swollen. However, he returned with a bang when, on the insistence of his coaches, he started out faster to defeat Mathias Marino 27-10. It was the highest point output for the competition. The win took him to the semis where he lost to the eventual winner Junio Castillo from the Dominican Republic 11-3.

Young advanced from the first round by virtue of a bye before defeating Osmar Bravo of Nicaragua 13-10 in a close fight, then losing to Jose Soto of Puerto Rico 16-6.

Both boxers took instructions well and thrived under the guidance of Seymour and Poole and earned their places on the Jamaican team for the Pan American Games. Boxers from The Bahamas, Trinidad, the US Virgin Islands, and Barbados all qualified for the Games in what turned out to be a truly Caribbean effort.