Year in review
Stabroek News
January 1, 2005

Related Links: Articles on sport
Letters Menu Archival Menu


Boxing

2004 was a good year for boxing in Guyana especially among the women. Gwendolyn 'The Stealth Bomber' O'Neil stood out like a beacon among her counterparts, winning two world titles.

O'Neil, a mother of five, became the first female Guyanese to win a world title when she outpointed American Kathy Rivers at the National Park in May to secure the IWBA light-heavyweight crown.

The fight was the first world title bout to be held in Guyana, and was promoted by Carwyn Holland. O'Neil was later stripped of the title when she lost to Laila Ali in September, but rebounded to win the WIBC light-heavyweight crown with another points decision; this time over Trinidadian Crystal Lessey late in December. The victory created history for O'Neil, who became the first person from Guyana to win two world titles.

On the international scene, Vivian Harris and Wayne `Big Truck' Braithwaite both successfully defended their world titles in April. Braithwaite went 12 rounds for the first time when he defeated Louis Azille at Madison Square Gardens (his first Pay Per View appearance). On the same night, in Berlin, Germany, Harris outpointed German Oktay Urkal to retain his WBA junior welterweight title.

Six months later, Harris, dodged by most top names in the division, was forced to have a return fight with Urkal, again in Germany. Harris may have learnt something from the first encounter, as he stopped Urkal in round 11.

Guyana held three world title fights during 2004; all were female bouts. Carwyn Holland's 'Holland's Entertainment Promotions' organised two, while Freeman Fordyce's 'Freeman's Promotions' held the other. In Holland's other promotion, Pamela `The Grenade' London lost in a bid to capture the vacant IWBF heavyweight title by way of a TKO to American Martha Salazar. That fight was held at Splashmins Fun Park.

Stephanie `Stepping Razor' George also lost in a bid for a world title when she was out-pointed by American Leona Brown for the vacant WIBC bantamweight title. The fight was held in New York in November.

Australia-based Gairy St Clair won two international titles during the year. St Clair first took the vacant WBF International super-featherweight title in July, then went on to win the vacant WBO International featherweight crown.

`Hurricane' Hugo Lewis snatched the Caribbean Boxing Federation's junior lightweight crown when he stopped John Trotman in the first round of the bout, held in April in Barbados.

Undefeated Leon `Hurry Up' Moore took home the CABOFE bantamweight title with a fifth round stoppage of Elvis Martinez at the National Park in May. National junior middleweight champion `Deadly' Denny Dalton lost to Hungarian Mihaly Kotai in an attempt at the lowly-rated World Boxing Federation title in September.

Guyana's first world champion, Andrew `Sixhead' Lewis, was scheduled to come off an 18-month hiatus in August to fight in England, but the plans fell through.

The Guyana Boxing Board of Control continued to be one of the better-run organisations in the country as KD Persaud, Trevor Arno, Andrew Thorne and company put their shoulders to the wheel to bring back the sport to its glory days of yore.

Table Tennis

With Chinese coach Zhou Ping in charge for most of the year, 2004 proved productive for table tennis.

Guyana finished sixth at the 44th Caribbean and Central American Table Tennis Championships, which were held in Trinidad in early August. The small contingent to the competition won one silver and three bronze medals.

Matthew Khan, who has moved up in the Caribbean Under-21 ratings, won a silver medal in the Under-21 final, while Vida Moore won bronze in the female Under-21 competition. The other bronze medals were won by Khan and Jody-Ann Blake in the mixed doubles semi-finals, and Blake and Michelle John in the female doubles semi-finals.

The Guyana Table Tennis Association was greatly hampered by the lack of finances, which restricted its participation in overseas tournaments. For this reason, Guyana did not take part in the Junior Central and Caribbean Table Tennis Championships in late August.

Nevertheless, several players were able to travel overseas. These included coach Linden Johnson, who travelled to Guatemala to complete a level two coaching exam, and junior male player Raymond Baksh, who was at the 2004 Olympics in Athens as part of a youth development programme; Michelle John who went on a training stint in Brazil, and Khan who is currently on a training stint in New York.

2004 also saw leading lady Jody-Ann Blake recognised as Junior Sportswoman of the Year by the National Sports Commission during the 2003 Awards Ceremony.

Other accomplishments included Guyana's female team winning a bronze medal in the Latin American Junior Table Tennis Championships in May.

Motor Racing

The year belonged to 'Sir' Mark Vieira, who raced unchallenged in Guyana and Barbados. Vieira and his team, headed by Sunil Persaud, struck fear into the hearts of competitors as he established new lap records in both Caricom territories.

Vieira put himself in line for the Sportsman of the Year award in September when he journeyed to the Land of the Flying Fish and erased the ten-year-old lap record set by Sean Gill.

In his dependable Mazda RX7, Vieira shattered Gill's 43.97 second Bushy Park record and replaced it with 43.93. Later on that same day, the speed master broke his own record when he recorded a time of 43.80 seconds.

`Sir' Mark returned to Guyana, and at time trials for the November 7 international meeting he went under the 36-second barrier in establishing a new South Dakota lap record of 35.62 seconds. The November meeting attracted hundreds of overseas visitors, adding weight to the argument of hard-working Vice President of the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC), Cyril Angoy, that the sport is a major boost to tourism.

Football

2004 may be reminisced as a pivotal year for football. It was the year that the Georgetown Football League (GFL) took on, and defeated, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) in a battle that was 'labelled democracy versus dictatorship.'

GFL waged war with the GFF, which ended with the latter taking an unprecedented retreat.

The war, described as a struggle for democracy versus dictatorship, by GFL President Odinga Lumumba, started when the GFF snuffed out the life of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) just weeks before the Annual General Meeting was to be held in July.

The GFF put in a hand-picked body to run the affairs of football in Georgetown but that was rejected by the General Council of the GFL, which went ahead and held elections in which Lumumba was elected.

The GFF later stated that it would not recognise the executive of the GFL.

The league made an appeal to CONCACAF and Caribbean Football Union (CFU), which saw CONCACAF Deputy General Secretary Harold Taylor making a historic fact-finding visit to Guyana. In the end, the GFF backed down and the GFL was accepted as a member of the GFF general council, although voting rights are yet to be bestowed.On a national level, Guyana's football remained in the doldrums. The senior national team was whipped at home and abroad by Grenada in the World Cup qualifiers early in the year.

The Under-20 and Under-17 teams did no better and were booted out of the World Cup preliminaries without a victory, in Trinidad and Cuba respectively.

Only the Futsal side, coached by former national midfielder Mark Joseph and managed by Lawrence 'Sparrow' Griffith, did Guyana any justice. The local side was runner-up in the CFU qualifier in April, which paved the way for promotion to the CONCACAF playoffs.

In the latter part of the year the GFF, which came under pressure for sticking with high-priced technical director Neider dos Santos, terminated the Brazilian's contract. dos Santos was paid a hefty $9 million in salary and benefits the year before.

Businessman Peter Ramsaroop became patron of Western Tigers and pumped $1 million in sponsorship to the FL Cup.

Fruta Conquerors secured its own home ground and had it outfitted with floodlights making it the third ground in Georgetown to have permanent floodlights.

Badminton

2004 was a rather successful year for Badminton, especially after the Guyana Badminton Association (GBA) resuscitated the game in schools.

In the past, approximately 97 percent of Guyana's badminton players came from Queen's College, and last year the new batch of QC students were taught the game during the August holidays with new interest immediately growing in the sport.

Since then the GBA ran off two tournaments for students - the Queen's College upper and lower competitions in September, and the under-15 and the under-19 singles and doubles in October.

Along with these tournaments, the GBA also hosted the Open Ladies' round-robin singles and the open doubles.

A look ahead

For 2005, badminton is expected to be played at home and abroad, with 13 tournaments scheduled for the year.

This month, the open singles (A, B and C divisions) will be played. The Mashramani Invitational Tournament will be played in February and the under-21 tournament in March. The Curacao Invitational International is billed for Easter.

The B and C division singles and doubles will be held in May and the over-35 tournament in June. July will see the badminton national tournament to be followed by the Caribbean Regional Badminton Championships in August. A schools' tournament, the Canadian Open, is billed for September.

Another B and C division singles and doubles tournament is set for October, followed by the Barbados Invitational Tournament in November. An inter-club tournament is scheduled for December.

Volleyball

The Guyana Volleyball Federation did an excellent job in 2004 for the development of the sport of volleyball in Guyana.

Even though the national team failed to take part in the South American Under-19 Volleyball Championships, because of a lack of finances, the year can still be deemed successful.

One of the strengths for 2004 was in the development plans instituted by the GVF after receiving the VIVA volei - a guide book to volleyball development by World Champions Brazil. Youngsters became the prime target for the sport.

Then the Caribbean Examinations Council made Physical Education an examinable subject and the GVF took advantage of that, quickly ensuring that volleyball was introduced in schools. Several schools programmes have been held, with more slated for 2005.

This has already brought an influx of young people, both male and female, into the sport, which will help with its growth and development.

Another key example of growth was the coaching seminars conducted by Romanian Dan Girleanu, who travelled to Guyana from the United States of America to facilitate a teachers' coaching programme.

Local coaches J. Dulchan and Lindon Couchman also moved from level one to level two coaches, when they travelled to St Kitts late in the year. When the $5 million needed for the trip to Chile was not met, the GVF immediately contacted Trinidad and arranged for a home-and-away competition for the under-19 players who were in training.

The under-19 team visited Trinidad and defeated that island's national under-20 team. The rematch, which was scheduled for December, has been postponed to early this month.

With their slogan 'volleyball from the cradle to the great beyond', the GVF in April sent Guyana's male and female senior teams to Boa Vista to take part in a club competition, which was won by Melbv Volleyball Club of Brazil.

At home, several local first and second division competitions were held for the year.

Next year, the National Sports Commission is hoping to restart the inter-Guiana games, and volleyball is expected to be one of the disciplines involved.