The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THEY should have been in Santiago, Dominican Republic, but the four-member team from the Amateur Boxing Association of the Bahamas has had to skip the trip this week to the Independence Cup because of the “lack of funding.”

“We just didn’t have the money,” said ABAB president Wellington Miller. “We got some funding from the Ministry of Sports, but it came in a little too late.”

Had they secured the necessary funding, the team would have left on Sunday to join the 16 other countries competing in the tournament that is scheduled to wrap up on Sunday.

National coach Andre Seymour, assisted by Kayla Johnson and manager George Turner, was supposed to travel with Carl Hield, Ronald Woodside, Rashad Williams and Godfrey Pinder. Miller said that while he would have liked for the team to travel, the funds came in a little too late to get them into the Dominican Republic.

And even though they got the grant from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, Miller said it would not have been sufficient to accommodate the team, which had an average cost of $700 each for just the airfare. He said the association is looking at sending the team to an alternate tournament in the US where the cost is less expensive.

Seymour said it was quite devastating for the team when they got the news that they would not be able to travel.

“We were really disappointed, this was a good start for us, especially these up and coming boxers who are preparing for the next Olympics,” Seymour said. “Right now, all of the countries are using this tournament to look at their up and coming boxers.”

The Bahamas would have gotten the opportunity to compete against boxers from Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, US and Peru.

“We have to be positive because there are other tournaments coming up, but we can’t get left behind,” Seymour said. “There are other tournaments coming up. So every tournament is very important for us as we prepare for the Olympics in 2016. We only have two more years left. So we have to get started now.”

In addition to not making the trip, Seymour said both Woodside and Williams are no longer on the Olympic Solidarity programme that allowed them to train with Hield in Cuba. Hield is currently on the government subvention and Pinder was hoping to eventually join them in Cuba.

But Miller, who also serves as the president of the Bahamas Olympic Committee, said the Olympic Solidarity programme comes to an end at the conclusion of the Olympic Games and the International Olympic Committee will resume the programme two years heading into the Olympic Games.

He indicated that as soon as the IOC starts the programme, the BOC will make the necessary provisions for the boxers to return to Cuba.

The boxers, however, are all disappointed that the trip to the Dominican Republic and their training in Cuba has been dropped.

“We have been in Cuba for the past six months training hard because we know that this tournament was coming up,” said 23-year-old Williams, who competes in the 64-pound junior welterweight division. “We wanted to go to the tournament and show our skills and see what we have been doing in training.”

For 20-year-old Woodside, who has represented the Bahamas at the Junior World Championships, the Commonwealth Junior Games and the Junior Continental Championships, said he has been training for a long time to prove to the Bahamas that he’s ready to step up to the next level.

“It’s very hard not being able to go to the championship,” Woodside said. “Now that the trip is off and we’re no longer on the Olympic Solidarity programme, I have to find a way to get back to Cuba to continue my training. I just have to stay focused and try to get back in training.”

Pinder, 21, said the tournament was supposed to be an important one for him.

“It was upsetting because I’ve been training at least three times a day with coach Seymour and Ray Minus Jr,” he said. “This is what I like doing, but I never had the opportunity to get on any programme to go to Cuba, so I was hoping to make an impression so that I could join them.”

The same day that Hield came home from Cuba, he was informed that the team wasn’t going anymore. “I feel it was a chance for these guys to really showcase what they are capable of doing,” Hield said.

“For a group of guys that just came to Cuba to train, I think they have progressed very well. They have been training very well, so I’m sure that they would have had some competition in the Dominican Republic.”

Hield, the veteran member of the team, said he and the other boxers will now just have to wait until the next tournament as they start to prepare for the Olympic Games.

According to Seymour, the next tournament on the schedule is in Puerto Rico May 28 to June 3. Then they will go to the Men’s Continental Championships in Santiago, Chile, August 2-8 before they go to the Elite World Championships in Kazakhstan in October.

In the meantime, Seymour said he will work with assistant coach Floyd ‘Pretty Boy’ Seymour, who resides in Washington, in a quest to get the boxers to compete in some other tournaments in the US to help keep them sharp.