Recovering from a knockout blow

WE JOIN with Minister of Sport and Community Development Shamfa Cudjoe in congratulating TT boxer and Olympian Nigel Paul on his historic performance at the world boxing championship last week, in which he brought home a bronze medal.

Not only is Mr Paul’s medal notable for coming after his unsuccessful 2016 Olympics campaign, but it also represents something of a departure for the country.

At various international-level sporting tournaments, we have regularly won medals in athletics. But when considered alongside the recent achievements of national cyclist Nicholas Paul, it is clear other disciplines are also seizing the moment to claim the limelight they deserve.

It should come as no surprise this country has produced world-class sportsmen, particularly boxers.

Many still remember the exploits of the late Jizelle Salandy, who regularly took home title after title and broke world records along the way. In fact, right up to her tragic death in a car accident in 2009, Ms Salandy was undefeated.

During her career, Ria Ramnarine has also scaled the heights of success and was even appointed to the International Boxing Association’s women’s commission.

But while our sportsmen are literally sweating blood and tears on behalf of their country, the things they need to sustain their high-level performances are not always in place.

As the minister was congratulating Mr Paul on his boxing medal this week, another boxer was begging for assistance.

Lightweight Michael Alexander, who was involved in a motorbike accident earlier this year, was scrambling to raise US$15,000 for surgery to continue his career.

In January, months shy of the Olympics, Mr Alexander was in a motorbike accident in Diego Martin. He suffered broken ribs, punctured lungs and broken bones in his left hand, spent two weeks in the Intensive Care Unit and lost his chance to go to Tokyo.

Before this, Mr Alexander, 28, had been one of the country’s top boxers. He earned a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland and a bronze medal at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru. He is ready to do what it takes to get back into the ring.

But waiting for support from the Government has served him a seeming knockout punch.

“Sometimes you feel like you have to beg,” he said this week of his stalled effort at raising funds. “I don’t know what I have to do for them to actually hear my cry. If I going out and representing my country – the red, white and black – and putting them on the map in this sport and I medalling every time I go out, why are they treating me like that? Have I done something wrong?”