The fu­ture of box­ing looks safe, de­spite the work that has to be done, na­tion­al head coach Vic­ki Boodram has said.

The five-day Na­tion­al Box­ing Cham­pi­onships came to an end on Sun­day (Jan­u­ary 26) at the South­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Pleas­antville, and Boodram, giv­en the top coach­ing job af­ter a shake-up in the T&T Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion to po­si­tion T&T to­wards the 2028 Olympic Games in Los An­ge­les, got the op­por­tu­ni­ty to as­sess the box­ers, some of them new fight­ers and oth­ers ex­pe­ri­enced fight­ers.

She told Guardian Me­dia Sports that over­all the per­for­mances were good. “We will have some work to do to fine-tune etc., but gen­er­al­ly I think the fu­ture looks good for us,” Boodram said. Her son Paul Matthew Newal­lo was made to go up in the 75kg di­vi­sion for ac­tion, as there were no fight­ers in his 71kg cat­e­go­ry. Still, Newal­lo showed the tal­ent to de­feat Luke Tees­dale of the Cos­mic Box­ing Gym in the fi­nal to be crowned na­tion­al cham­pi­on by a split de­ci­sion.

There was al­so a vic­to­ry for Paul Ra­j­nauth of the Gold­en Fist Box­ing Gym, pre­vail­ing over Tris­ton Pe­terkin of the To­ba­go Elite Box­ing Gym, while a close match-up be­tween Joshua Gar­cia (Gold­en Fist Box­ing Gym) and Jaden Casti­lano (Bio­mel Box­ing Gym) in the 66-71kg Elite di­vi­sion had the crowd on their feet.

“It was a com­pet­i­tive match-up be­tween Gar­cia and Castel­lano, which was of good qual­i­ty, but in the end, Castel­lano won. The con­test with Ni­rav Ma­hadeosingh and An­tho­ny Joseph was a bat­tle be­tween youth and ex­pe­ri­ence, but I think Ma­hadeosingh did well. He, how­ev­er, lacked strength as his punch­es failed to cause any dam­age against his op­po­nent. He needs to get in­volved in a strength pro­gramme to show any progress,” Boodram ex­plained.

RE­SULTS

92+ (Box­ing Con­test)

Paul Ra­j­nath (Gold­en Fist Box­ing Gym) vs Tris­tion Pe­terkin (To­ba­go Elite Box­ing Gym)

Win­ner - Paul Ra­jauth

67kg (Ex­hi­bi­tion Bout)

Med Charles (Fierce Young Li­ons Box­ing Gym) vs Stan­ley Brooks (De Sil­va Stars Box­ing Gym)

71-75kg Novice (FI­NAL)

Nicholas El­liott (Hitt Fitt Box­ing Gym) vs. Alexi Mc De­gan (Ed­son Breedy Box­ing Gym)

Win­ner - Nicholas El­liott

71-75kg (FI­NAL)

Kyle Rod­ney (Team Ex­treme) vs. Je­don Cod­joe (To­ba­go Elite Box­ing Gym)

Win­ner - Kyle Rod­ney

71-75kg Youth (FI­NAL)

Luke Teals­dale (Cos­mic Box­ing Gym) vs. Math­ew Newal­lo Cos­mic Box­ing Gym

Win­ner - Paul Newal­lo

57kg Elite (FI­NAL)

Ner­aj Ma­hadesingh (Mitch Ath­let­ics) vs. An­tho­ny Joseph (Gold­en Fist Box­ing)

Win­ner - An­tho­ny Joseph RSC

60-63.5kg Elite (FI­NAL)

Jesse Beck­les (Cos­mic Box­ing Gym) vs. Joshua De Sli­va (Gold­en Fist Box­ing Gym)

Win­ner - Jesse Beck­les

66-71kg Elite (FI­NAL)

Joshua Gar­cia (Gold­en Fist Box­ing Gym) vs. Jaden Casti­lano (Bio­mel Box­ing Gym)

Win­ner - Jadeon Castil­lano

75-80kg Elite (FI­NAL)

Jer­im­i­ah Thomas (Gold­en Fist Box­ing Gym) vs. Kodel Lee (Siparia Box­ing Gym)

Win­ner - Je­re­mi­ah Thomas

In­ter­na­tion­al Bouts

Men 67kg

Nevin By­er (Sil­ver Medal­ist) In­tenci­ty Box­ing Gym vs Shaquain James (Guyana)

Win­ner - Shaquain James RSCI

Women 80+

An­gel George (Gold­en Fist Box­ing Gym) vs Abi­o­la Jack­man (Guyana)

Win­ner - Abi­o­la Jack­man