KARACHI, Nov 8: China will host the biennial World Boxing championship in 2005, International Boxing Association (AIBA) president professor Anwar Chowdhry said on Saturday.

“Beijing was one of the nine contenders for the 2005 championship and since their case was strong the AIBA Executive Committee has awarded the event to China,” Chowdhry, a Pakistani who is serving his fifth term as AIBA president, said.

He said the 2005 event would provide China a good opportunity to produce better boxers for the bigger event of summer Olympics in 2008, also scheduled in China.

The Executive Committee meeting was held in Istanbul, Turkey last month and out of nine contenders only China and Denmark presented their bids for the world championship.

“China is giving serious attention to boxing and with more school and cadet level boxing coming up, I see a great future for the sport in China,” Chowdhry, who is also the the president of Pakistan Amateur Boxing Federation, said.

The Thai capital Bangkok held the 12th world boxing championships in July, a n event won by Russia.—AFP