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07/08/2007

Fantastic news for university boxing

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After consultation with the British Universities Sports Association (BUSA), and as part of the ABAE drive to develop all areas of the sport, we are delighted to announce that the ABAE English Universities Championship will take place in Sheffield on 7th, 8th and 9th of December 2007. 

Wes Grant, BUSA Boxing Programme Manager said: "We see this as a very progressive development and are delighted to be working with boxing's national governing body."

Representatives from the English Universities Championship will then compete in the British Universities Boxing Championship, also in Sheffield, in March 2008, as part of the BUSA British Universities Championships, which will include more than twenty sports. The boxing championships will be integral to the games, and one of the centrepiece events of the overall sports championships, with Scottish, Welsh and Irish university boxers also competing in what will be the most high-profile boxing event ever in British Higher Education.

BABA unanimously supports the British event and will stage it in conjunction with BUSA, with BABA Chairman and AIBA Referees and Judges Commission Chair Terry Smith saying "the Home Nations have never been closer and this is a wonderful development for the sport and university participants."

Interest in boxing in universities is growing rapidly and Boxing Development Officers will be attending freshers' fairs at their local universities at the start of the new term to support existing university ABCs, and to focus and develop interest at those without affiliated clubs. 

There has also been a good uptake of places on the ABAE Boxing Tutor courses from university staff and students. The recent course in Sheffield included Professor Lynda Nead of Birkbeck College, University of London, who said: "Boxing gives you the best physical training you can get, but it is also about skills that you never stop learning and developing. It is a sport about tactics and strategy; chess through the body, if you like. Not surprising that some of the best sports writing ever has been produced ringside."

With the backing of leading academics such as Professor Nead, the sky's the limit for university boxing.



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