VASHTI SINGH

Learie Con­stan­tine Park in Ma­coya came alive last Sat­ur­day night as the Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) host­ed a ma­jor leg of the Wel­come to the Gayelle se­ries.

The event formed part of the build-up to the start of the NCC’s na­tion­al stick­fight­ing com­pe­ti­tion and show­cased some of the coun­try’s top bois men, draw­ing an en­thu­si­as­tic crowd to the venue.

The dom­i­nant man to beat con­tin­ues to be five-time na­tion­al cham­pi­on O’Neil Odle, who ap­pears to be main­tain­ing his win­ning mo­men­tum this sea­son. Sat­ur­day night’s vic­to­ry com­plet­ed a clean sweep for the 35-year-old vet­er­an dur­ing the NCC’s Gayelle warm-up se­ries. Odle se­cured his third con­sec­u­tive win of the sea­son and re­mains un­de­feat­ed in the Gayelle se­ries.

Sec­ond place went to Sel­wyn John, a pow­er­house vet­er­an from Rio Claro, who trad­ed blows with Odle through­out the sea­son but was un­able to over­come the cham­pi­on. Ter­rance Mar­cano, rep­re­sent­ing the sto­ried Mar­cano lin­eage, placed third and con­tin­ues to as­sert him­self as a lead­ing con­tender in the re­gion­al rank­ings.

The Wel­come to the Gayelle se­ries be­gan in Moru­ga on Jan­u­ary 3, fol­lowed by a Jan­u­ary 10 edi­tion host­ed by Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment for the area, Dr Rood­lal Mooni­lal, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the NCC. The fi­nal leg of the warm-up se­ries took place on Jan­u­ary 17.

Sat­ur­day’s event was well at­tend­ed by res­i­dents of Tu­na­puna and Ma­coya, ful­fill­ing the Min­istry of Cul­ture’s ob­jec­tive of bring­ing tra­di­tion­al stick­fight­ing be­yond its south­ern strong­holds and in­to the East-West Cor­ri­dor.

The of­fi­cial Wel­come to the Gayelle na­tion­al stick­fight­ing com­pe­ti­tion now re­turns to the south. Pre­lim­i­nary rounds will be held in Ma­yaro/Rio Claro on Jan­u­ary 30, the semi­fi­nals move to Ojoe Road, San­gre Grande, on Feb­ru­ary 4, and the fi­nals will con­clude in Moru­ga on Feb­ru­ary 9.