Please release for circulation, today as soon as possible. __________________________________ November 18, 2008
For Immediate Release:
MEDIA ADVISORY
The 5th edition of the AIBA Women’s World Championships will be the biggest in its history after a total of 208* boxers from 44 federations registered to participate in this year’s tournament which will run from November 22-30 in Ningbo City, China.
USA, India, China & Russia lead the entries with full teams of 13 boxers each while other countries to have entered include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Cameroon, Canada, Czech Republic, Chinese Taipei, Denmark, DPR Korea, Egypt, France, Gambia, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Mozambique, Mongolia, Norway, Netherlands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Romania, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Serbia, Sweden, Sierra Leone, Turkey, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Tajikistan.
The AIBA Women’s World Championships, which features bouts of three rounds of two minutes across 13 weight categories (46kg, 48kg, 50kg, 52kg, 54kg, 57kg, 60kg, 63kg, 66kg, 70kg, 75kg, 80kg, 86kg) will open with preliminaries on November 22 before the semifinals and finals take place on November 29 and 30 respectively.
The previous highest participation for an AIBA Women’s World Championships, which started in 2001, was in 2002 when 185 athletes from 31 countries competed in Antalya, Turkey.
In previous showings at the Worlds, Ontario women have dominated and brought home numerous medals. In 2005 Mary Spencer of the Windsor Amateur Boxing Club became the first woman from Canada to win Gold in her weight class at these prestigious games. The Women’s World Championships is the highest level of competition for female amateur boxers all over the world. Initiatives are currently in place to have female boxing included in the 2012 Olympics.
Team Canada
48kg – Jacqui Park-Bay Area Boxing Club (Burlington)
50kg – Mandy Bujold-Waterloo Regional Boxing Academy (Kitchener)
54kg-Mellissa Guillemette
63kg-Katie Dunn-Windsor Amateur Boxing Club (Windsor)
66kg-Mary Spencer-Windsor Amateur Boxing Club (Windsor)
70kg-Arianne Fortin
75kg Amber Konikow-ONTC (Sudbury)
81kg-Melinda Watpool-Durham Boxing Academy(Ajax)
For up to date schedule & results beginning November 22 visit our website at www.boxingontario.com
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Boxing Ontario is the governing body for Amateur Boxing in Ontario. As such, it is affiliated with the Canadian Amateur Boxing Association (CABA) and the Association International de Boxe Amateur (AIBA).
