THE ROAD to Barbados training camp at Maxwell, Christ Church, has been hailed as a success by head coach Nino Fracasso.
Fracasso, a former Italian national coach who speaks very little English, said he was very happy with the progress of the more than 35 boxers taking part in the Road To Barbados training camp at Maxwell in Christ Church.
“So far everything is going fine. We are having a great time in Barbados. The boxers have been hard at training and are eager to do well. They are very committed and that makes my job easier despite the language barrier at times,” Fracasso said.
No stranger to coaching at this level, Fracasso has coached boxers from across the globe, including those that took part in the Road To Milan in 2008 and the Road To Baku earlier this year.
Countries participating in Road To Barbados training camp include: El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Guyana, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Moldova, Grenada, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Lithuania, Slovenia, Georgia, Dominican Republic, Afghanistan, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana and host country Barbados among others.
Christy Halbert, Ph.D., is a certified elite-level amateur boxing coach, and has represented the United States as a coach in several international events, including the first women’s World Championships.
She is also a nationally certified amateur boxing official. Halbert conducts certification clinics and workshops for coaches and officials. She strives to teach boxers how to understand boxing so that they can make smart decisions about training and ring strategy.
In 2001 she founded Boxing Resource Centre, a boxing programme and club dedicated to teaching boxing principles.
Although Halbert claims that she never had that “killer instinct” for the pros, she went 5-0 during her professional career, when she boxed in the 180 to 190-pound weight class.
One of only a handful of women to earn the highest level of boxing coaching certification, Halbert coached the United States in the first-ever Women’s World Championships held in 1997.
This year marks the first time AIBA has done a training camp for women and equally more impressive is the first time they have appointed a female as one of the coaches.
Speaking to MIDWEEK SPORT about her role as coach in the Road To Barbados she said that her mission was to increase the possible success of boxers identified as coming from emerging countries.
