Belfast plays world host

There was no truth in the rumour that 1992 Olympic boxing gold medallist Michael Carruth had already started canvassing for the post of Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) president when he arrived in Belfast yesterday for the announcement of next year's World Amateur Boxing Championships. Carruth, who yesterday called for the entire executive of the OCI to resign, arrived with former world champions Barry McGuigan and Dave McAuley and Olympic medal winners Freddy Gilroy and Hugh Russell at Belfast's City Hall for the official launch of the 2001 tournament, to be staged next June in the city's new Odyssey Arena.

Given the recent past of the World Boxing Championships, Belfast will hope to stage a competition free of controversy. Last year in Houston, Texas the Cuban team staged a mid-competition walk-out with scowls on their faces and cries of corruption ringing in the ears IABA president Anwar Chowdhry.

The protest probably cost heavyweight legend Felix Savon his sixth World Championship gold medal, but there are hopes that the Cuban, an enormous draw wherever he goes, will return next year for the biggest sports event ever to visit Belfast. Only second to the Olympic games in prestige, the championships will be staged in Ireland for the first time since the inaugural event in Havana in 1974.

Over 450 boxers from nearly 60 countries will compete in 12 different weight categories in what is now Ireland's biggest indoor arena.

Irish boxers have done reasonably well in the championships, with four medals to date, the most recent Stephen Kirk's silver in Budapest in 1997. Damean Kelly (1993), Carruth (1989) and Tommy Corr (1992) also won bronze medals.

"Hopefully this will be the first of many major amateur tournaments to take place in Belfast or Ireland, and in the not-too-distant future, Irish boxers will have the possibility of training in full-time training camps as is already common in the rest of the world," said 1992 Olympic silver medallist Wayne McCullough, who remains in the USA pending accurate diagnosis of the cyst discovered on his brain three weeks ago.

The staging of the competition is seen as an ideal opportunity to showcase Belfast as an event city. "This is a great boxing opportunity for Ireland, even greater than the European Championships held in Dublin in 1939," said McGuigan. "It's a wonderful opportunity for young boxers and boxing fans from all over Ireland to see a wealth of the finest talent in the world."

The student accommodation at Stranmillis College will provide the competition village for the boxers and is four kilometres from the competition site, while the Belfast Hilton provides a convenient and luxurious fivestar base for officials just one kilometre from the Arena.