Doha to host World Boxing Championships

Agencies/Jeju City, South Korea

In another sporting first for the region, Doha has won the right to host the World Boxing Championships in 2015, the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) announced yesterday.

Doha was chosen over Bangkok after the Qatar Boxing Federation’s bid to host the event impressed the executive committee of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) at its annual meeting in the volcanic Jeju Island province.

The championships will be held from October 5 to 18, 2015 at the Lusail Multi-Purpose Sports Hall.

Fully supported by HE Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, secretary general of the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC), the Doha delegation had travelled to Jeju with representatives from the QOC and the Qatar Boxing Federation.

Yousif al-Kazim, secretary general of the Qatar Boxing Federation, expressed his happiness after winning the bid.

“We are delighted with the trust and confidence of the AIBA council. We have no doubt that the 2015 AIBA World Boxing Championships will be one of the best in the history of the sport and new standards will be set in this brand new region for AIBA. The council knows we will not let them down!”

Al-Kazim added: “I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to HE Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman for his full support and guidance in this successful bid.”

Doha 2015 will be the first World Boxing Championships ever to be hosted in the region and officials said it offered an opportunity to “innovatively promote boxing to a new audience, to set new standards of excellence for the world championships and to further strengthen the role, status and reach of the AIBA.”

AIBA president Dr Wu Ching-Kuo congratulated Qatar and said Doha winning the bid offered the world body a chance to explore new horizons in its efforts to promote boxing.

“On behalf of the AIBA Executive Committee, I would like to congratulate the city of Doha for the impressive proposal they have put together,” said Dr Wu.

The World Boxing Championships will be one of two global sports events to be held in Qatar in 2015, the other being the handball World Cup.

Qatar will  also be hosting the cycling road racing World Championships in 2016 and has bids lined up for several other global events in the run-up to the FIFA World Cup in 2022.