OLYMPIC-BOUND TT boxer Aaron Prince will ramp up his preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the coming days as the middleweight boxer will train in a bubble.

Prince will make his Olympic debut at the Games, which run from July 23-August 8. The Games were postponed for a year because of the covid19 pandemic.

Prince is expected to be joined by coach Reynold Cox and 2016 Olympic boxer Nigel Paul in the bubble.

Prince is the fourth TT boxer to qualify for the Olympics after Kurt Sinnette (1996), Carlos Suarez (2012) and Paul (2016).

Prince earned his spot at the Olympics last week.

He did not have to compete to book his place in Tokyo, Japan. After the cancellation of the Americas leg of the Olympic qualifiers in Argentina, scheduled to begin last week, the World Boxing Association set up a task force to assess individuals by the current regional rankings.

Three boxers in the Pan American middleweight division left the category, which pushed Prince up the rankings from seventh to fourth. That was enough to earn qualification for the Olympics.

Prince will be able to spend time on his craft, as he has been given the necessary time off from work.

On Wednesday, in an interview with Newsday, Prince said, “The last couple days have been good. I got the time off and they making preparations to go into a bubble and train.”

Prince and his team are still arranging the details of the bubble, but have narrowed down the options to two locations.

Discussing what he will concentrate on in the bubble, Prince said, “Trying to focus more on the strength training, conditioning training, technical training. I personally want to do more of the sparring work outside of TT.”

After the local training camp, Prince wants to train overseas with Russia being a possible option.

“We are presently waiting on funding also to leave the country because we intend to do final preparations outside.”

Last week, Prince said his Olympic qualification was still “soaking in.”

On Tuesday he said, “It soak in.”

Prince is not waiting for the bubble to be set up.

“There is work that I will be doing on my own. Coach (Cox) sends training to me also over Whatsapp…he sends the work to me that he will like to get done and I will do it also.”

On Tuesday, it was reported that the Pan American Sports Organisation is willing to facilitate the vaccination of all qualified athletes and accredited officials heading to the Olympics.

Panam Sports reported that it had reached an agreement with the University of Miami and the Mexican Consulate in Miami, United States to receive 4,000 vaccines to help ensure the health of the athletes and officials who will participate in the Summer Games.

Panam Sports president Neven Ilic said in a statement the vaccine is the one produced by Johnson & Johnson (one dose) and must be administered at least 30 days before entering Japan.

Vaccination will begin on May 24 at the Consulate General of Mexico in Miami.

Prince is uncertain if he will take the vaccine before the Olympics. The Internation

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