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RIF:
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AIBA
Press Release
First of nine continental Olympic qualifying events start this week
January
22, 2007 - Boxing's exciting road to
Beijing
restarts this week with the first of nine AIBA continental Olympic
qualifying events beginning on Wednesday.
The
capital city of
Algeria
,
Algiers
is the host of 107 boxers from 25 countries at the 1st Africa Olympic
Qualifying Tournament starting on Wednesday, while
Bangkok
,
Thailand
is the venue for the 1st Asia Olympic Qualifying Tournament starting on
Friday where 141 boxers from 28 countries will participate.
Of
the total 284 Olympic qualifying spots on offer Africa is contesting 60
vacancies while
Asia
's numbers 53. However, following the opening qualifying event at the
AIBA World Championships Chicago 2007 in October last year where 80
boxers from 37 countries qualified for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing,
China
, Africa's number of qualifying spots has reduced to 58 following the
qualification of Egypt's Ramadan Yasser and Said Rachidi from Morocco in
the Light Heavyweight and Middleweight divisions respectively. Asia
meanwhile has 38 qualifying spots up for grabs after 24 boxers qualified
in
Chicago
.
The
revised number of continental vacancies is split evenly between two
tournaments with
Windhoek
,
Namibia
hosting the second African qualifying event from March 22-31 while the
second Asia Olympic qualifying event will take place from March 15-25 in
Astana
,
Kazakhstan
.
Egypt
, Morocco Algeria,
Tanzania
,
Cameroon
and
Ghana
are the favourites for the African qualifying events while
Uzbekistan
,
Kazakhstan
,
India
,
Thailand
,
Korea
and the
Philippines
are the front runners in
Asia
.
Full
Olympic qualifying calendar
Jan.
22 - 31 1st Africa Qualifying
Algiers
,
Algeria
Jan.
24 - Feb. 3 1st Asia Qualifying
Bangkok
,
Thailand
Feb.
24 - Mar. 3 1st Europe Qualifying
Pescara
,
Italy
Mar.
10 - Mar. 18 1st
America
Qualifying
Port of Spain
, Trinidad &
Tobago
Mar.
15 - 25 2nd Asia Qualifying
Astana
,
Kazakhstan
Mar.
22 - 31 2nd Africa Qualifying
Windhoek
,
Namibia
Mar.TBD
Oceania Qualifying TBD
Apr.
7 - 14 2nd Europe Qualifying
Athens
,
Greece
Apr.
23 - 30 2nd
America
Qualifying
Guatemala City
,
Guatemala
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