Promising T&T junior boxers Nyrell Hosein and Juan Rodriguez will leave on Friday for the Pan American Junior Games Qualifiers in Mexico, July 12-19 with high hopes.
Hosein will contest the 60kg category while Rodriguez will compete in the 56kg division.
At 17 years, both have dominated their respective divisions at the Caribbean Schoolboys and Schoolgirls Champions, as well as the Caribbean Youth Boxing Championships over the past two years they were held in 2018 and 2019.
Cecil Forde, president of the T&T Boxing Association said there are high hopes for the boxers, both of whom will be eligible for the senior elite team when they turn seniors next year. In 2022 the elite T&T boxers will contest the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, and the Commonwealth Games, both geared towards preparation for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.
The Pan American Junior Games will be held in Colombia in September this year and both Hosein and Rodriguez are almost certain to be in it, Forde said. At the Caribbean Schoolboys and Schoolgirls Championships in 2018 and at the Caribbean Youth Championships in that year, Hosein won gold medals, while Rodriguez claimed gold and silver respectively at the same tournaments.
Hosein, a student of North Eastern College in Sangre Grande shot to fame when he defeated Christopher Romeo for the Caribbean Boxing Championship 57kg title in Guyana in 2018. Then 15 years, the form four student said he entered the ring and executed the strategy he had for the fight.
At the same tournament in 2018, Rodriguez produced one of the most entertaining fights of the tournament, displaying an impressive array of left hooks to earn a unanimous-decision victory over Guyana's Francis Sukhu.
Prince in Russia fine-tuning
Meanwhile, T&T's lone boxing qualifier Aaron Prince is currently in a two-week boxing camp in Russia fine-tuning for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan later this month and next month. Prince, who spent almost seven days in a camp in Guynan before heading out to Russia, qualified for the biggest sporting stage in the world based on his top-three ranking in the Americas region because there was no qualifiers, is being accompanied by his coach Rawlson Dopwell and manager Reynold Cox.
Prince's preparations is continuing in Russia where he and boxers from Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Morroco, Guyana, Jordon, and Congo are in the final phase of their preparations which will end on July 19. He will depart Russia on the July 20th and head straight to the Olympic Games village in Japan. The Games start on July 23.
