Rodriquez Frederick, a 17-year-old from the village of Salybia in the Kalinago Territory, alongside Delroy John Charles and Nathan Joseph have emerged gold medalists at the 2017 Creole Boxing Championship held in St. Lucia.
The Championship began on July 4th and ended with the finals on July 9th where Frederick was the second member of the Dominican team to score gold.
Dominica News Online had the chance to speak with Frederick about his first- time success in the ring, and he said that it was “a good feeling” to have gotten that title as it always a boxer’s dream to bring home the gold for his/her country and family.
Frederick said preparation for the competition was rough since he had to meet the required body mass of 69 kilos to participate in the championship and find a balance between school, exams and Student Based Assessments (S.B.A.s) and training.
“The preparation was really rough because I could not really meet my weight; I struggled to meet my weight. I had to get up at five in the morning to train until six; I had to wear a large garbage bag over my body to sweat more,” Frederick said exclusively to Dominica News Online. “I was supposed to fight at 64 kilos but because I couldn’t meet the weight in that period of time, my coach (Julian Valmond) made me fight at 69 kilos.”
Interesting to note is that one day prior to the finals of the championship, Frederick was feeling a bit unwell, but still managed to give his all and triumph against his opponent in the ring at that time, an opponent he said he could have easily beaten.
“It was hard, I was very afraid that the doctor would disqualify me, but I still fought because I did not want to go to St. Lucia and come back with nothing… While in the ring my eye started itching and I was seeing a bit blurry but when I saw the guy I had to fight, I said I could beat him,” he stated.
Frederick said his love for box began upon his entry in Grade Six when he began dabbling in the sport with school mates, just for fun. His interest grew as he became more and more involved in the things of boxing to a point where his class teacher, Cozier Frederick, who also happened to be a boxing instructor, began to teach him the art.
“At break and lunch time my classmates and I would ask him ‘sir can we borrow the gloves to practice?’ just playing, sending wild punches not knowing the rules of the stance, and that was how I got the feeling for it,” he stated.
In 2013 when he entered third form at this school, the Castle Bruce Secondary School, he began training. At that time he was an athlete at the school on top of being a member of the Dominica Cadet Corp.
Frederick has a number of boxers and fighters whom he regards as role models in his pursuit of becoming a professional fighter, with Mohamed Ali at the top of the list.
He encourages anyone who wishes to get involved in boxing to be focused and find a balance between the sport and their personal life, while always remembering to do their best.
awesome job guys, KEEP IT UP!!!!!!!!
Nice!
thats cool… i’m happy to see the sport developing on the Island! there’s alot of talented youth that can benefit as well as the overall island. good role models for their peers.
That’s good positive Dominica. Vibes right there! Keep it up guys. Don’t let the old “lack of facilities” or “Dominica is a small nation” stop you from dreaming big.
Congrats to the team and its trainer for producing such good results consistently. Stay focused and passionate about what you do. To the trainer, keep up positive work and keep on fighting for your boys.
Alright fellas good job
Congratulations to the Mr. Frederick and the rest of the team!! Hard work and dedication truly pays off
Well done to the yours them. Keep it up that is a sport with a lot of cash involved!
Hey people what about the Olimpics. We could get trainers from Cuba.
Nice news for a change. Keep up the hard work and positivity and good things will come to you.
Keep it up guys..
The sky is your limit.
Congratulations guys. Job Well done.
Kudos to the champ
And the dominican team