THE international women’s boxers and coaches took a rare break from the Road to Barbados when the Local Organising Committee, the Barbados Tourism Authority and Government hosted the visitors at a cocktail reception at the Games Village at Golden Sands, Christ Church, on Wednesday night.
President of the Barbados Amateur Boxing Association (BABA) and head of the LOC, Joyce Bowen, was pleased as punch to welcome everyone to the social.
She read an excerpt from the latest AIBA (International Amateur Boxing Association) magazine which expressed the greatest confidence in the picturesque island of Barbados holding the best AIBA Women’s World Boxing Championship, from September 6 to 19.
Senator Peter Gilkes of the BTA also spoke of the tourism benefits of the championship which would help Barbados’ drive to become the No. 1 sports tourism destination, with the island already achieving great success in sailing.
With many of the visitors arriving from Asia and European countries where English is hardly spoken, the latest musical offerings from Crop-Over proved to be the universal language for the boxers and coaches to communicate via their various gyrations and happy feet.
International coaches Nino Fracasso of Italy and Dr Christie Halbert have developed a reputation of being hard taskmasters with the boxers who want to improve and hopefully give some of the bigger names a challenge.
However, both Fracasso and Halbert showed that they know how to have a good time with Fracasso taking Bowen for a twirl on the floor and then forming a congaline. Halbert showed that she could move more than her fists by “dropping it” to Mr Dale’s popular tune.
National coach Gary Bowen, Barbados’ four hopefuls – Kimberly Gittens, Geta Nadine, Maliza Nadine and Jenny Benedict – members of BABA, Dr Adrian Lorde, Sam Wilkinson and members of the BTA also attended the function.
