Stewart By Melton Williams,
Staff Reporter
ST. GEORGES, Grenada:
JAMAICA'S amateur boxers rose to the occasion in Grenada to dethrone Guyana of their overall championship title at the three-day Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association (CABA) championship which ended late Saturday night at the Youth Development Centre in St. Georges.
The Jamaicans, who made a bold bid against the odds from Wednesday's first day, took top spot with a combined team score of 37 points; the juniors contributed the higher percentage.
Guyana, who won the 2000 championship in Jamaica, ended up in second position with 31 points and Barbados, led by Olympian Shawn Terry Cox and the impressive Junior Greenidge secured third place with 28 points.
Jamaica, were not only crowned CABA champions, but took the junior title ahead of the 2000 winners Bahamas.
However, their attempt for a clean sweep failed as Guyana, who dominated the championships in the 1990s, won the senior title easily with 25 points. Jamaica, who entered the final night one behind the Guyanese in the senior category ended up with 20 points for second.
Point standings:
Juniors: Jamaica (17), Bahamas (13), Barbados (11), Grenada (10), Antigua (6), Guyana (6), Aruba (3), St. Lucia (2) and Cayman Islands (1).
Seniors: Guyana (25), Jamaica (20), Barbados (17), Grenada (11), Martinique (5), Antigua (5), Cayman Island (3), Aruba (3), St. Lucia (2) St. Vincent (1).
Overall: Jamaica (37), Guyana (31), Barbados (28), Grenada (22) and Antigua (11)
Jamaica ended the tournament with a medal haul of eight gold and six silver, a performance that the Jamaica coaching staff said that they are proud of.
"We went to Grenada without a light middleweight, a light heavyweight and a junior heavyweight and against that background we have done well," said team manager Luke Irons.
In a year when the squad was missing two experienced senior fighters in Patrick Daley, the CABA 2000 light middleweight gold medallist and super heavyweight Leon Palmer, Jamaica can consider themselves unlucky not to have swept the championship.
Their attempt to sweep CABA 2001 went up in flames on Friday night with the unfortunate defeats of heavyweight champion Kerron Speid and Patrick Miller in the semis.
Speid, who was upset by Guyana's Theophilus Blue in their semi-final bout experienced difficulties with his breathing during the fight according to the doctor on duty.
Speid, who won the bronze medal at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, is a three-time CABA gold medallist. Blue went on to take the heavyweight gold.
Miller was knocked out by Troy Headley of Barbados in less than three seconds of the first round on Friday suffered from concussion and had to be detained overnight in hospital.
Fifteen-year-old schoolboy Courtney Simister set the foundation for Jamaica, when he mined the first gold in the Under-16 light flyweight category on Friday's penultimate day. Simister scored a close win over Guyana's Dexter Marques.
Other gold medal performances came from Tarique Francis (light flyweight), Nicholas Chatoo (super heavyweight) and Omar Bailey (featherweight) in the Under-20 category; Hosea Stewart (light welterweight) in the Novice category; and in the Senior category -- Conrad Scott (flyweight) and Sheldon Rudolph (light welterweight).
Jamaica's Rudolph Hedge, whose opponent pulled out of the tournament, was presented with the Under 20 flyweight gold without throwing a punch. The organisers make a "no contest" ruling and as a result no points were awarded to the team.
Highlight of Jamaica's performance was Sheldon Rudolph, the experienced fighter rallied back strongly to win the light welterweight gold over Dwayne Crandon of Guyana.
Rudolph, who narrowly missed qualifying for the Sydney 2000 Olympic is eyeing a move to the professional ranks later this year.
For the second consecutive year, Greenidge was the top senior award winner .. the Barbadian, defeated Jamaica's Tstsi Davis to achieve the feat of back to back gold in the welterweight division. His teammate Cox, the only Caribbean qualifier for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, make light work of Gavin Clersaint of Antigua & Barbuda to win the light heavyweight gold.
Greenidge was voted Boxer of the Tournament.
Host country Grenada walked away with two awards. Lennox Simon was voted the Best Under-20 and Elton Stephen received the award for Best Novice.
Guyana's Yusif Ali was voted the Best Under-16.
CABA 2002 will be hosted by Martinique.
The Jamaican team returned home yesterday.
