ARMENIA TO HOST WOMEN BOXING CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE FIRST TIME
PanARMENIAN.Net
29.01.2010 21:51 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Boxing Championship in Yerevan will for
the first time host women boxers.
As Armenian Boxing Federation secretary general Lyova Hovhannesyan
told PanARMENIAN.Net reporter, the federation plans to develop women’s
boxing in Armenia. "This time, the championship will feature 7 women
participants in 3 weight categories," he noted.
Haykanush Nazaretyan and Taguhi Hovakimyan will compete on January 30
in 54 kg. weight category. The winner will rival Kristine Martirosyan
in tournament finals.
Ashkhen Simonyan and Anna Hovhannesyan will be competing in 75kg.
weight category.
Women’s boxing first appeared in the Olympic Games at a demonstration
bout in 1904. For most of the 20th century, however, it was banned
in most nations. Its revival was pioneered by the Swedish Amateur
Boxing Association, which sanctioned events for women in 1988. The
British Amateur Boxing Association sanctioned its first boxing
competition for women in 1997. The first event was to be between two
thirteen-year-olds, but one of the boxers withdrew because of hostile
media attention. Four weeks later, an event was held between two
sixteen-year-olds. The A.I.B.A. accepted new rules for Women’s Boxing
at the end of the 20th century and approved the first European Cup for
Women in 1999 and the first World Championship for women in 2001 in
Scranton, PA. Women’s boxing was not featured at the 2008 Olympics;
however, on 14 August 2009, it was announced that the International
Olympic Committee’s Executive Board (EB) had approved the inclusion
of women’s boxing for the Games in London in the 2012 Olympics,
contrary to the expectations of some observers. Although women fought
professionally in many countries, in the United Kingdom the B.B.B.C.
refused to issue licences to women until 1998. By the end of the
century, however, they had issued five such licenses. The first
sanctioned bout between women was in November 1998 at Streatham in
London, between Jane Couch and Simona Lukic.