Amateur boxing elections November 23

THE AMATEUR Boxing Association of Trinidad and Tobago will stage their long-awaited annual general meeting and election of officers on Sunday, November 23.

This was confirmed yesterday by Cecil Forde, vice-president of the much criticised organisation who said the meeting will commence at 3 pm at the Cosmic Boxing Gym in Marabella. “We are required by the constitution to give the clubs 14 days notice and we will soon be doing that,” said Forde. He said there are 19 affiliated clubs to the ABA and each club will be entitled to be represented by two officials who will vote for the officers to run the organisation for the next year. Forde said he expects several officers to be elected unopposed but would not be surprised other posts are hotly contested. President of the ABA, retired Customs and Excise official Mike Jarvis is currently overseas on personal business in Miami, USA after visiting the two TT boxers in Santo Domingo who have been competing there. “Jarvis will be back around November 18 so all of the incumbents will be up again for re-election,” said Forde. The other top officers are Mario Robinson, secretary; and Fitzroy Richards, treasurer.

The amateur association have been under fire over the past two years especially from assistant manager of the Revival Boxing Gym, Allan Ferguson, a former national middleweight champion. Ferguson’s public criticism of the amateur boxing administration earned his club a short suspension last year during which a hastily arranged meeting of club representatives was called. At this meeting it was reported that a decision was made to keep the officers in their positions until a proper annual general meeting could be staged. Yesterday Forde said he was confident that the present administration will remain in power judging from their performance over the past two years. He said some measure of stability has been effected in the sport and the fighters have been excelling on the international stage after being given the opportunity to develop and fight against the counterparts throughout the region.

He pointed to the record of Tobagonian heavyweight  Kertson Manswell who has earned silver in the last three major international tournaments —- Commonwealth Games, Central American and Caribbean Games and the Pan American Games. He said the amateurs have also been among the medals in the past two Caribbean Boxing Championships and that TT has been successful in getting the right to stage the 2004 tournament in Port-of-Spain. Forde also defended the amateur boxing asociation’s stance on not meeting with the Boxing Board of Control concerning issues confronting the organisation. “We are separate with our own respective constitutions. There can be no meddling in our affairs. Even the legal experts are keeping out of this one,” said Forde. He said he expected club representatives to vote on performance on November 23 and not be distracted by other issues which are only hindering progress.