Manswell lone Caribbean hope

English-speaking Caribbean boxers failed last week in their final bid to qualify for the 2003 Pan Am Games this August, leaving Trinidad and Tobago’s heavyweight Kerston Manswell as the only Caricom representative for boxing to the games.

Manswell, who won silver at both the Commonwealth and Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games last year, earned his qualification in Mexico in March, where other Caribbean boxers fell short. And at the last chance box-offs in Colombia for the August 1-17 Pan Am Games in the Dominican Republic, Caricom  boxers were again unable to secure top-two spots and qualification in their divisions. “I’m proud to be the one carrying the Caribbean hopes at the Pan Am Games, but I must say I am also a little sad that I am the only one that made it,” Manswell told CMC Sport yesterday. Barbadian CAC Games gold medallist Shawn Terry Cox, and boxers from Grenada and the US Virgin Islands were among those vying for spots in Colombia.

Grenada’s middleweight Martin Bascombe, light-welterweight Kennis Joseph, and heavyweight Andy Grant were all eliminated at the semi-final stage. Manswell rates his gold medal chances in the Dominican Republic very highly. His Commonwealth Games and CAC outings last year, in England and El Salvador respectively, are his only major international competitions to date, and he believes his experience from those games has prepared him well for Pan Am. “I definitely know now how to fight and I feel that I can beat anyone,” Manswell said.  Manswell won the super-heavyweight title at the Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association  Championship in the Bahamas last month, moving up in weight class, after capturing the heavyweight crown in Martinique in 2002.