By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

BEFORE they left last week for Tijuana, Mexico, veteran team member Carl Hield had predicted that all three boxers representing the Amateur Boxing Federation of the Bahamas would win a medal and qualify for the Pan American Games. Mission accomplished.

Hield, joined by Rashield Williams and Kieshno Major, returned from Mexico with coaches Andre Seymour and Valentino Knowles with three bronze medals and their tickets booked to Toronto, Canada, for the Pan Am Games - an event that comes under the auspices of the Bahamas Olympic Committee - July 10-26.

All three boxers on their return, gave thanks to God for giving them the ability to box and achieve their success and they also praised the federation, president Wellington Miller and coaches Seymour and Knowles for assisting them in achieving their goal.

• Here's a look at how each of the three boxers summed up their trip:

Rashield Williams, 25, who fought out of the 64 kilogram class or light welterweight division. "The competition was good and it was nice to come out with the bronze medal," Williams told The Tribune on the team's return home.

After winning his first match over Nelson Diaz of Nicaragua, Williams lost in the semi-final to Joe DeJesus from Brazil.

"The guy was just a stronger fighter," Willims said. "But I'm just glad that I got the bronze medal and I qualified for the Pan Am Games."

Now Williams is contemplating his options whether to go to Cuba or Washington DC where he trained previously. In Washington, he worked out with Floyd 'Pretty Boy' Seymour, who served as an assistant coach on the team that participated in the Commonwealth Games last year in Glasgow, Scotland.

Wherever he ends up, Williams said he's looking forward to travelling with his team-mates to Toronto to continue their winning trend and hopefully qualify for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"This experience will help me a lot because I'm more confident," said Williams, who was eliminated in the first round at the Commonwealth Games. "It was good to be with the team because everybody did good, especially the coaches, who worked so hard with us."

Major, 30, fought out of the 91 kg 201 lb super heavyweight division.

"In my qualifying match, it was stiff match," Major said. "I fought against a good boxer, but my conditioning, my training and my focus allowed me to come out on top."

Major opened the tournament by winning his first match over Luis Munoz of Peru, but he lost to Clayton from the US Virgin Islands in his second match.

"I wanted to go out there and leave it all in the ring, but if I can give my performance a grade, I would give it a B plus. I will have to do more next time. I hope to improve on what I did when I go to the Pan Am Games."

Major said once he can improve on his conditioning, he will be better prepared for the challenge ahead of him next month in Toronto.

Hield, 27, fought out of the 69 kg 152 lb welterweight division.

"The competition really was tough," said Hield, who is coming off his second round loss at the Commonwealth Games. "You had to go out there and give it your all. It wasn't where you could just go there and qualify. When we left here, I believed in my team-mates that we would all qualify and we did it.

"These guys made me believers in them. Kieshno did what he had to do and he came out successful and Rashield took his fight to the guy and he gave it all he had. As the veteran of the team, I just had to close it out and give the Bahamas three victories and three boxers qualified for the Pan Am Games."

Unlike his team-mates, Hield had to go through two rounds in order to advance. He won his opening match in the preliminaries against Kastna Davis from Jamaica and then pulled of his second match over Jonathan Francois from Grenada. However, he lost to Marvin Cabrera from Mexico in the semi-final.

Hield, who leaves today for Cuba to continue his training, said they could not have done it without Seymour and Knowles, the former boxer, who is now making his success as a new coach.

"We made history and we are looking forward to going to the Pan Am Games and doing the same thing," Hield said. "Three boxers, three medals. We just have to stay focused, believe in ourselves, believe in the coaches and believe in God and everything will become successful for us."

Seymour gave a lot of credit to Knowles, who assisted him in getting the boxers in and outside of the ring for their matches. He noted that he was also pleased with the fact that Knowles was able to secure his international boxing certification, which will now allow him to coach at any level of competition.

"We're now going to get them ready for the Pan Am Games," Seymour said. "We don't have much time left, so the focus will be on keeping them fit and focused. We will decide on whether or not they will go to Cuba or Washington to continue their preparation.

"But after these performances from all of them, we are confident that they will be able to go to Toronto and turn in another impressive showing. Me and Valentino were very pleased with the way they performed. They listened to our instructions and they followed the advice we gave them and they were all successful in qualifying.

"We wanted to win either the silver or the gold medal, but that didn't work out for them. So we are pleased that they all got a bronze medal. The key is that they got a medal and they qualified for the Pan Am Games."

Seymour noted that there were about 33 countries that participated and the Bahamas was just one of two English-speaking countries in the Caribbean who had boxers who qualified. The other was the US Virgin Islands, whose super heavyweight Clayton beat Major in their semi-final match.