By Jack Magowan.
The Belfast Telegraph.
Saturday, January 13 2001
FORGIVE me asking, but where are the Comoros Islands? Better still, have
they anybody there who can box?If so, then he (not she) can expect an invitation
to the World Amateur Championships in Belfast.
The closing date for entries to this mid-summer spectacular may still be ten
weeks away, but the whoop of anticipation is already being heard around the
province.
Romania, Poland, the United States and Russians all aim to field full 12-man
teams at the Odyssey and so will the Cubans, you can be sure, given their track
record in the tournament. Close to 90 medals in all and more than half of them
gold.
It now costs $$100 a day to enter a competitor in the championships, but
that's small change to Cuba's boxing elite.
About £50,000.... that's how much it will cost comrade Castro to
prepare and send his squad of pin-up boys to this world safari, and that doesn't
include bonus money lying in wait at home for all finalists here.
"There's usually something more than just a medal, or championship
belt, for prize-winning Cubans after such a prestigious event as this,"
says Mervyn Elder.
"Felix Savon and the great Teofilio Stevenson were not the only Havana
heroes who could afford not to turn professional. It's no secret that anyone who
scales the summit in sport in Cuba is rewarded with lots of inviting extras.
Like a car or holiday home, for starters," he said.
Clearly, Elder's City Hall team has been busy.
AIBA, the world body, has now over 180 boxing nations on its roll, and by
tomorrow all will have received entry forms to a ten-day marathon that will be
televised around the globe.
By whom, it's too early to say. SKY and the BBC look to be the main players
in a big-money bid to host the broadcast signal, an exciting plus for the
championships and a proud old city.
"And an invisible bonus, too, for the promoters," says Elder,
chairman of the organising committee. "Naturally, it would have drained our
budget a bit had we been obliged to pay for a TV link, which was a condition of
the championships coming to Ulster."Radio 5 hope to have live commentary on
both finals' days, and there's an offer on the table to screen all 12 finals on
Grandstand, which might be hard to resist.
While Houston two years ago will be remembered, if at all, as an untidy,
badly run affair, Belfast is leaving nothing to chance.
Here, the spotlight will focus on those who matter, the boxers, each of whom
will have his own room at Stranmillis College, where they will also eat and
train in comfort.
The cost of board and lodgings there could be as much as a $$1,000 (about £650)
a man, and well over 300 in all are expected, trainers and team managers
included.
President Chowdhry and other VIP's and AIBA officials will be based in the
Hilton Hotel, a short walk from the Odyssey. This group should not only comprise
of five members of the world medical commission, hopefully including Belfast
doctor Sean Donnelly, but technical and rules' delegates, plus nearly 30
referees and judges, three of them IABA nominees.
Since the championships are open, Ireland must hope to be represented in all
12 weight divisions.
This will be the eleventh instalment of championships first held in Havana,
and only once has Cuba ever had fewer than eight finalists, or gone home with
less than four gold medals. A good omen, perhaps, for the week of June 3-10.
And the Comoros Islands? Ofcourse, they're somewhere in the Indian Ocean
about 300 miles north of Madagascar.
Under threat of suspension, boxing's Ulster Council wisely avoided a head-on
collision with the IABA's new management team by handing over paperwork on how
votes were cast at the autumn convention. How did the Council ever get into such
an embarrassing mess, and at a time when it should be trying to win friends, not
lose them.
© Copyright Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
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