President of the Pan American Boxing Confederation, Elise Seignolle, has given Jamaica’s ‘Gloves over Gun’ Campaign and the Boxing in Schools Initiative her approval.

The recently elected Pan Am boss made the announcement Monday morning at a news conference hosted by the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) and the Jamaica Boxing Association (JBA) at the JOA’s office in Kingston, where Seignolle outlined that the benefits to Jamaica from her organisation would be multi-pronged.

“We are at the onset of this new administration in the confederation, therefore, the presence of Jamaica within the board is taking part in that building process, and for their voice to be heard, which is very, very important. …so the benefits from the confederation’s standpoint would be support for athletes, coaches and officials as well,” said Seignolle.

In keeping with its commitment to invest in the development of local sporting disciplines, the JOA, through its president Christopher Samuda, expounded on the recently announced $5-million investment towards the renovation of the JBA’s national gym, the Stanley Couch Gym in Parade Gardens, Kingston.

Samuda stated, “Any sport needs a home in order to strive and certainly to survive. Every sport needs a home where talent can coalesce, where they can come, they can train and receive high-quality coaching, so our investment is part of our policy across the board, to see how best we can help associations to have that security of tenure by having a home.“

Meanwhile, the president of the JBA, Stephen ‘Bomber’ Jones, in responding to the question on the spinoffs to be derived from Seignolle’s visit, stated, “We can expect the needle to move even further. I am glad that she was here not just for today, but to see our boxers in action, to see the state of our gyms, and to see the state of our officials, so more connections are being made for Jamaica. 

“Jamaica is now at the table with the decision makers, and they have a first-hand appreciation for what we do here. They have a first-hand appreciation for what the sport means for the country, so the conversations are being had to increase our levels of activities by building our network to have more invitational here, have our boxers travel, have our coaches upgraded, create a pool of elite squad that can have a real chance to get to the Olympics and the international levels of competition.”

On the matter of the improvement of the local boxing officials, Jones added, “She has reached out to an International Technical Official in Ray Silvas to come down here and upgrade our officials more, we have a monthly show that our officials work on, and so we want to know that they have the activity so that they can go to international competitions.”

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Jamaica Defence Force boxer Kerry Ann Stephenson, who gave an inspirational speech on what boxing means to her, was able to pull a standing ovation when she challenged women and girls to develop great self-esteem and continue to believe in themselves.

Speaking after the news conference, she said, “Boxing is an accomplishment, however, the love that I have for boxing comes from wanting to defend myself, and being a female out there in society, you have to be able to defend yourself. It’s very important, people tend to take advantage of you, so being able to defend yourself, as I said, is very crucial.”

She added, “Boxing has really motivated me, and the fight in the ring helps you think continuously of how you will respond to a shot, will you block or duck, in other words it makes you aware of your surroundings and to always be prepared, which also builds your self-esteem and confidence to always believe in yourself and be ready to defend yourself.”