August 20, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 17, 1429

BEIJING, Aug 19: Women’s boxing could make its Olympics debut at the 2012 Games in London after the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) agreed on Tuesday to lobby the IOC for its inclusion.

The request will be officially made to the IOC, the AIBA said in a statement, following a meeting of the body’s executive committee.

“The AIBA Executive Committee announced its full support for including women’s boxing in the 2012 Olympic Games and agreed to develop a proposal and submit it to the IOC in the coming months,” said the statement.

The meeting also agreed to introduce three rounds of three minutes instead of four rounds of two, as well as 11 weight categories for women’s and youth boxing.

“Weight categories for women and youth girls [will] be aligned more closely with men to feature 11 weight categories from Jan 1, 2009.”

AIBA chief Ching-Kuo Wu, meanwhile, said he was happy with the ongoing Olympic boxing tournament despite numerous controversies over judging. “The whole competition has been clean, honest and transparent.”

Irish light flyweight Paddy Barnes supported the move for women’s Olympic boxing. “There’s some girls that are matching boys for skills, so I don’t see why they shouldn’t have women boxing here.”—AFP