Women shape up for equal rights
The Herald Sun, 15 July, 2008
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Victoria's female boxers
are shaping up for a chance to
compete at the Olympic
Games.
Amateur boxing officials are
expecting the International
Olympic Committee to allow
women to box in the 2012
London Games.
The decision, due next year,
will breach the last bastion of
male exclusivity in Olympic
sports.
Boxing is the only discipline
in the summer Games in
which women are not
represented.
'All the advice I'm getting is
that it will be included in
London,' Ted Tanner, chairman
of Boxing Australia, said.
He said the international
standard of female boxers is
now very high and hoped the
IOC decision would attract
more Australian women to
the sport from other martial
arts and combat sports.
Tanner said the inclusion of
women would help improve
funding for the sport.
'I think it was old values
that held women's boxing
back,' he said.
Women have to hold their
own national championships
this month because this
year's Australian titles will be
staged in New South Wales,
where female boxing is illegal.
NSW boxers will compete at
the tournament in Brunswick
on July 26 and 27, where participants
will vie for the chance
to represent Australia at the
world amateur titles in Ningbo
City, China, in November.
It will be the fifth world
championships for women
and while Australia has been
represented before, only one
boxer, South Australian Desi
Kontos in 2002, has won a
medal.
Victorian team members
have been sparring with each
other and professional boxer
Susie Ramadan, who on Friday
night won the national
super bantamweight title at
Knox Basketball Centre.
Ramadan, who scored a
unanimous points decision
over Edith Smith, is
undefeated in four
professional fights.
Among her admirers is Sam
Soliman.
'Sam said he has seen plenty
of women fight, but none have
the got the punches like she
has,' Ramadan's trainer Con
Brizzi said. 'He said she would
be great in America.'
Boxer Candy Revuelta, 24,
says she hopes the impending
decision about the Olympics
will improve the level of women's
participation in boxing.
She boxed for a year when
she was a junior at 17 and had
one fight but stopped because
thereweren't any opponents in
her flyweight division.
Revuelta resumed in October
and has had one fight for
one win under trainer Ben
Chua. 'After I had a break I
realised I had a passion for it
and I had always loved it. It's
an exciting time for women's
boxing. There's no way I
would give it up now,' she
said.
Hairdresser Michaela Ng,
30, will be fighting in the 67kg
division and has her sites
firmly set on the Olympics.
'I think if I could go to the
Olympics that would be the
best thing that ever happened
to me. My dream has always
been to go but I didn't think it
could be a reality,' said Ng,
who has a 3-0 record.
Her trainer Sam Visiglio
said she had a good chance of
success at the national titles
and beyond after recently
beating an experienced
German boxer, the Solimantrained
Rebekka Atz.
'She came in as the underdog
after only two fights and
just impressed us so much
with her determination,' Visiglio
said. 'It's a great incentive
to think that she might be able
to represent her country now.'
An estimated 30,000 women
from 120 countries box competitively.
Last year's world
titles in Russia attracted 152
boxers from 28 countries.
Vladimir Klitschko
The nationality of world
heavyweight boxing champion
Vladimir Klitschko is
Ukrainian, not Russian as
reported yesterday.