Canberra Boxing Bulletin - Edition 24, April 2002

After years of relative invisibility, amateur boxing is now coming of age in the Canberra region thanks to gold and silver medal-winning performances from local boxers at the Australian Championships in Melbourne on the 22nd - 24th March.

The remarkable achievements come as the ACT amateur boxing community begins its first year of being independent from NSW, and as the national championships hosted women competitors for the first time. The national body also endorsed an ACT initiative to create a Masters Division for boxers over 34 years of age, who have previously been unable to compete.

ACT Boxing Inc this year has already netted a gold and silver medal at the national titles, two berths to the upcoming prestigious Oceania Boxing Titles in New Zealand this weekend, and one place on the Australian boxing team to the Commonwealth Games being held in Manchester UK in July/August.

We can be proud of the great effort made by our first team to a national titles - Joe McCann (cadet 54kg), Clayton Tidbury (sen 81kg), Gerard O’Mahony (sen 71kg), and Michael Ninness (sen 91kg), coach/manager Rob Barron and assistant coaches Garry Hamilton, Peter Blencowe and Quinten Brown.

Ninness and O’Mahony will both take part in the Oceania Titles in New Zealand (8-13 April) and a Commonwealth Games fundraiser in Perth (17 May).

Ninness will then compete in the World Cup at Kazakhstan in June before entering the Australian training camp in Formia, Italy, before heading direct to Manchester UK for the Commonwealth Games (26 Jul - 3 Aug).

Full details of the results of the 2002 Australian Championships held in Melbourne 22-24 March are available online at http://ozboxing.org (incl schoolboy, cadet and junior results). The Gold Medal winners for senior males (who form the Commonwealth Games team) are listed below.

For the first time, women competed at the Australian Championships. The senior women’s 54kg & 57kg divisions were won by Michelle Grantham and Linda Kelly respectively, both of Western Australia.

The March 2002 meeting of ABAI made the following major decisions:

Our next show is at 6pm on Saturday April 13th at the Uni Bar, on the ANU campus in Civic. We have already had over 20 locals register this year as boxers, and expect many of them to weigh-in on the 13th. Ticket prices have been reduced this year to $10 (adult), with youth/student/pensioner tickets down to $5. Make it a night out with a bunch of your friends, the venue is licensed and hot food is available. As always, families and kids are very welcome.

The following tournament on 18th May will feature a team of 6 junior boxers from Mongolia competing against an Australian team, to mark the conclusion of a training camp at the Institute of Sport. This will be in addition to the usual ACT/NSW bouts.

The club formerly known as the ACT Boxing Academy, currently based at the UCAN Recreation Centre in Bruce, is now called the Underground Northside. The contact remains Andrew Smith 0418 663658

Notice of Annual General Meeting of ACT Boxing - Wed 8 May 2002

Notice is hereby given that ACT Boxing Inc will hold its 2002 Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 8 May at 7.30pm at the RSL Memorial & Citizens Club, 13b Moore Street, Canberra City. Observers are welcome.

The meeting will consider the financial reports, and elect a new Board consisting of a President, Vice-President, Treasurer, Secretary, and three ordinary Board members.

Nominations for election to the Board will be accepted from financial members up till the start of the meeting. Only financial members may vote at the meeting and in any ballot for elections. Organisational members (eg clubs) which are financial are entitled to send one voting delegate to the meeting.

Persons wishing to become members or renew membership should contact the Secretary well prior to the meeting (phone 6292 1149) so that a membership form can be posted to you.

We have had one woman register as a boxer in the ACT so far this year, and we are keen to see more registered as soon as possible. In addition to women from the ACT, those in New South Wales can register with ACT Boxing since they are presently unable to do so in their home state.

As with any division, the more women who register and are available for competition, the better the chance of getting matched for a tournament. Registration forms are available online from http://actboxing.com or by calling our office on 6292 1149. All annual registrations lodged after 31 March have a registration fee of $35.

Boxers and coaches are reminded that there are NSWABA Southern Districts tournaments at Dapto (Dandaloo Hotel) on Sat 6 April, and at Richmond (Richmond Club) on Sun 21st April. Both of these have had the venue or date changed since the original calendar was published in our last edition. And congratulations to Brendan Bayliss (Flames), Ben Crossingham and Gerard O’Mahony (Underground) and Jeremy Schmidt (U/G Northside) who competed at NSW tournaments early in March.

The national Boxing Australia website is at http://www.boxing.org.au

The NSWABA website is at http://nswaba.org while the QLD site is at http://qabai.com