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News from St Lucia as of
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OECS boxing called off
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| Published on Saturday, October 24, 2009 | Email To Friend Print Version
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CASTRIES, St Lucia -- Boxing fans and boxers in the OECS will this year not have an opportunity to witness and compete at the OECS Boxing championships. That’s because the 2009 OECS Boxing Championships scheduled to be held here November 20th and 21st has been called off.
Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association President Ralph James on behalf of the Local Organizing Committee for the event says that as late as Monday October 19th with the exception of Grenada, none of the member states of the OECS Antigua, Dominica, St. Kitts and S Vincent and the Grenadines had responded to the several requests by the host for confirmation of participation in this year’ championships.
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| St Lucia Amateur Boxing Association President, David 'Shakes' Christopher |
Added to that the Local Organising Committee for the event were faced with a request from the hotel that they had reserved the accommodation for participating numbers by Friday October 16th and for an advanced payment by Tuesday October 20th.
Given those circumstances the Local Organising Committee could not continue to plan for the successful staging of the championship and in this regard they had to take the final decision to call off the championships.
Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association President Ralph James thanked the Saint Lucia Amateur Boxing Association for their generous offer to host this year’s championship and apologized for the inconvenience caused and the loss of revenue during the period of planning and preparation.
There is another factor which negatively impacted travel is the costs of airfares. The costs range from an average of EC$750.00 per ticket and according to an official of the Grenada Amateur Boxing Association who in speaking to Sportcaraibe and preferred to remain anonymous, said “The airfares are killing we when it comes to travel in the region to compete in tournaments.”
He said that the Governments of the region need to address that issue, or they may very well find that the only tournaments with participants may very well be those with local participation.
There is talk of the introduction of a ferry service, which the Grenadian boxing official said “would revolutionize the manner in which sports groups would travel in the OECS.”
He envisages more teams and personnel travelling to compete and participate, which if taken advantage of by the sub-region’s governments, “would take sports to level we dream of now but would become a definite reality.” | | | | Reads : 722 | | | |
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