The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The Amateur Boxing Association of the Bahamas' bid for two boxers to advance to the 2012 Olympic Games came to a crashing halt in the final qualifying round of AIBA American Qualifying Tournament.

On Sunday night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Valentino Knowles lost his 64 kilogram bout 13-9 to Anderson David Rojas Mina of Ecuador. Then on Monday, Carl Hield went down 14-7 to Puerto Rican Prichard Colon Melandez.

The tournament was designed to secure the remaining 38 spots from the region for the Olympics that is scheduled to be held in London, England, starting in July.

Head coach Andre Seymour said it was disappointing for the two boxers simply because they both fell behind their opponents and were not able to bounce back.

"To tell you the truth, the fellows waited too late," said Seymour about the performances of the two boxers. "They didn't box like they should have."

Seymour, who was assisted by Stevie 'the Heat' Larrimore, said Knowles tried to "come from behind and that caused the problem for him.

"The guy got ahead of him in the first round and that was it," Seymour said. "He let the guy get ahead and he tried to come from behind, but it was too late."

Knowles, 23, ended the first round tied with Rojas Mina at 3-3. But in the second round, he fell behind 7-6 and in the third, Rojas Mina wrapped up the match with a 6-3 point spread.

Knowles was a bronze medallist in both the American Continental Elite Men's Cup in 2010 and the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, the same year.

As for Hield's bout, he came out of round one trailing 6-3, was beaten 5-3 in the second round and stopped 3-1 in the third in his bid to pull off the victory.

"He could have fought better if he didn't try to fight from behind," Knowles said.

Seymour said he was looking for both boxers to "box better. I expected them to both qualify. All they had to do was win one match and move on to the quarter-final.

"That's all they had to do was win. But coming from behind, you can't do that anymore. These guys come out to win because there's only one competition that was left for them to qualify."

Hield, who turns 26 on August 9, was coming off a bronze medal performance at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

With both boxers' hopes dashed, Seymour said they will stay in Rio de Janeiro for the remainder of the tournament and do a little bit of training and site-seeing before they return home.

ABAB president Wellington Miller, who is also the president of the Bahamas Olympic Committee, is also in Brazil with the team. He said he too was disappointed with the outcome.

"Both of them dropped behind in the first round and they couldn't catch up," Miller said. "In this tournament, everybody is trying to qualify so you had to come here and fight hard from the break."

Miller said Knowles was the No.2 contender behind a Cuban and he was considered to be a sure bet to advance. He said Hield was No.5 and he too was in a good position to book his ticket to London.

"Everybody was looking for these guys to get in but that's how it is sometimes," Miller said. "Sometimes the number one and two guys get beat by the number three and four guys.

"But these guys who beat them came from nowhere. They were just more hungrier than our guys and they pulled it off. It was quite disappointing for us because we expected them to move on."