Boxer Justin Parris won a gold medal for T&T at the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Creole Boxing Championship in St Lucia on Saturday. He stopped Uriah De Silva by TKO in the second round of a three-round bout.
Parris who was the lone T&T fighter to compete at the tournament as part of his preparation for the coming Commonwealth Youth Games next week, July 16-23 in Nassau Bahamas, proved to be a cut above his opponent, the OECS champion in the 56kg category, and made it known. Parris coach Reynold Cox praised his fighter, saying he showed much more speed, power and boxing ability in the encounter, although he described De Silva as a good opponent.
“Parris has been very consistent at the Caribbean level and therefore his performance against De Silva was no surprise to us. He will now have to transform this performance to the commonwealth youth games which will feature much more tougher opponents, and to be honest I believe he can do it” Cox said. Parris won gold at the 2015 Caribbean Boxing Championship as well as bronze at the Junior Pana American Games in Costa Rica that same year. He has since followed this up by winning almost every fight he was involved in at the Community Boxing Caravan programmes being held by the T&T Boxing Association.
Cox said because of his consistency he believes Parris will produce a good display at the commonwealth youth games. He will be joined by the equally talented Nickell Joseph, a middleweight division standout and light heavyweight Tyrone Thomas on the team that will be representing T&T in Bahamas. According to Cox, Parris is also being targeted to compete for T&T at the Elite Commonwealth Games in Australia next year, where he will be a senior. —Walter Alibey