Allicock falls short in gold medal bid
Guyanese boxer, Keevin Allicock punched his way to a silver medal at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas yesterday.
The young prize fighter was going for gold in the 52kg division but dropped a 5-nil decision to Englishman, James David.
En route to the gold medal bout, Allicock recorded wins against Kian Bittles of Northern Ireland and Jordan Mathieu of Canada.
Allicock’s heroics was the only podium worthy performance for Guyana’s 10 representatives that competed in four disciplines: boxing, judo, swimming and track and field.
In an immediate reaction, president of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA), Steve Ninvalle stated that:“To win a silver in the Commonwealth Youth Games with over 70 countries participating is a plus, we applaud him and we applaud his efforts.
“We are happy and we know that in the future with the support of everyone he and others can do more.”
He added:“This goes to show what we have been saying all the time. We have the raw talent and we as a boxing association are operating on fumes so you can imagine if our tank was half filled what we can Guyana’s silver medalist at the Commonwealth Youth Championships, Keevin Allicock (left) flanked by coach, Seibert Blake and Guyana’s other representative in the fistic sport, Christopher Moore. Moore lost in the semifinals.
do.”Allicock who is one of the most disciplined young talents in the fistic sport came up through the DDL U-16 programme and
according to Ninvalle, “this shows how important these programmes are.”
Ninvalle concluded by stating that during the next
four years the association will be channelling more of its efforts towards the youth and junior fighters.
(Emmerson Campbell) (Reuters) - Chris Froome picked up 500,000 euros ($582,900) yesterday as his prize for winning the Tour de France — a tidy sum but a relative pittance compared to the huge sums banked by the top names in other sports.
By tradition, the Briton must also shares the spoils of his fourth Tour triumph in five years with his Team Sky colleagues, and not just the riders but the mechanics, the chef, the soigneurs and even the drivers of the team buses.
Last weekend Roger Federer earned 2.2 million pounds ($2.86 million) when he claimed an eighth Wimbledon tennis title — having spent a total of 11 hours and 37 minutes on court. Put another way that is 3,156 pounds per minute.
American Jordan Speith, who won the British Open yesterday, earned $1.84 million for his four rounds of golf at Royal Birkdale.
Soccer salaries in Britain are regularly in excess of 150,000 pounds per week with Manchester United’s French midfielder Paul Pogba earning a reported 290,000 pounds each week.
Froome is the highest-paid rider in the peleton and extremely well remunerated as Team Sky’s boss on the roads, commanding a millionaire’s salary.
His prize money for a gruelling 21-day slog around France is low by comparison with other sporting winners, though, especially when you consider what he put himself through to win one of the closest Tours for years.
The 32-year-old cycled 3,540 kilometres over 21 days, gasping up cruel climbs, battling wicked crosswinds and searing heat and surviving one big crash. He earned roughly 5,800 euros for each of the 86 hours he spent in the saddle plus an extra 500 euros for each day he wore the yellow jersey.
There are myriad other ways for the riders to earn a few extra euros in the Tour — again all shared with the team.
Points jersey winner Michael Matthews earned 25,000 euros for his Sunweb team who also shared the same sum for Warren Barguil’s polka dot jersey for being king of the mountains.
Stage wins were worth 11,000 euros and the smaller teams, desperate for publicity and extra revenue, sent riders out in daily breakaways aiming to hoover up prize money.
Intermediate sprint wins were worth 1,500 euros while riders first to crest the climbs were also rewarded, although 800 euros for making it first to the top of a monster such as the 2,360-metre Col d’Izoard in the Alps hardly seems particularly generous. ($1 = 0.8578 euros) ($1 = 0.7697 pounds)