WAL­TER AL­IBEY

Se­nior Sports Re­porter

wal­ter.al­ibey@guardian.co.tt

T&T’s emerg­ing box­ing cham­pi­on Prince Charles was an ear­ly ca­su­al­ty on open­ing day of the World Ju­nior Cham­pi­onships in Ar­me­nia, yes­ter­day.

Fac­ing Eu­ro­pean cham­pi­on Em­manouil Fo­tiadis of Greece in the Ju­nior Men’s 60-63kg Light wel­ter­weight con­test at the Yere­van Mi­ka Sports Are­na, Charles failed to han­dle his coun­ter­part, forc­ing the ref­er­ee to in­ter­vene in on­ly the first round.

The re­sult meant that Charles has been boot­ed out in the round of 32, and will have to watch on as his com­pa­tri­ots Paul Matthew Newal­lo, Sha­nia Nunez, and Rayah John take the ring ei­ther this week­end or next week.

The box­ers ar­rived in Ar­me­nia to take part in a live-in camp ahead of the tour­na­ment and had oth­er chal­lenges such as ac­cli­ma­tis­ing to the cold con­di­tions as well as the high al­ti­tude there. Na­tion­al coach Vicky Boodram said she was ex­pect­ing a lot from her charges and the near two-week camp.

How­ev­er, it was a horse of a dif­fer­ent colour for young Charles, a medal­list at the Ju­nior Caribbean Cham­pi­onships fac­ing a two-time Eu­ro­pean Ju­nior cham­pi­on who has won most of his fights by tech­ni­cal knock-outs.

T&T’s Newal­lo will next en­ter the ring for the red, white, and black on Tues­day, but will have some work to do in the men’s 70kg cat­e­go­ry con­test.

Mean­while, John will be the first T&T women’s fight­er to en­ter the ring on Wednes­day. Due to the num­ber of box­ers in her 48kg cat­e­go­ry, John re­ceived a bye that sent her straight to the quar­ter­fi­nals.

John will come up against the win­ner of ei­ther S Mak­si­u­ta of Rus­sia or S Bi­bol­synkyzy of Kazak­stan.

Boodram who spoke to the me­dia re­cent­ly said she is ex­pect­ing her box­ers to do well. “ I think they will give a good ac­count of them­selves at the tour­na­ment, and I think Sha­nia will re­al­ly cause a stir, as she has been re­al­ly do­ing well.”