Yusuf Al Kazim, President of QBF, and Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager, Cultural Village Foundation at Katara during a press conference yesterday.
DOHA: The Qatar Boxing Federation (QBF) will be scouting for talented fighters at this week’s three-day Katara Boxing Championship, a top official said.
The three-day Katara Boxing Championship will commence today, Yusuf Al Kazim, President of QBF, confirmed yesterday.
Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager, Cultural Village Foundation at Katara, said the championship will be an added feature at the country’s iconic cultural hub where more than 400 events are staged every year.
“The prime reason to stage the event is to see if we can find new talent. We staged a similar event two years ago and we managed to find Abdulhadi Al Marri (+91) who a won bronze medal at an event in Egypt this year,” Kazim said.
“This is a good way to scout for potential boxers. This three-day event will feature boxers in junior and senior categories. We expect around 50 boxers who are likely to pass their medicals before they compete at the Katara Boxing Championship,” he said.
Al Sulaiti said the event is part of Katara’s plan to engage the public interested in watching sports from close quarters.
“We have staged basketball and volleyball events and that too international competitions. This will be the second time we get to stage a boxing contest. We have named it Katara Boxing Championship,” Al Sulaiti said.
“This event gives us more responsibility to stage this event in a befitting manner. The federation wanted to come back and organise this event at Katara with our name in the title. They have the confidence towards Katara,” Al Sulaiti said.
“We have huge number of visitors every year. We get around 15-16 million visitors every year. We stage more than 400 events annually. I think we can do this with confidence. We hope to have an international boxing championship in the future,” he added.
“Our target is to get new boxers and we want to catch them young,” he said.
“Katara is the hub of cultural activity whether it is about sport, health or films. We feel proud of being associated with sports activities. The venue will be next to the amphitheater,” Al Sulaiti said.
Al Kazim said it was a well-thought out plan to make Katara as the host venue.
“We know Katara attracts a huge number of visitors. So we engage Dr Khalid if we can do it here and they welcome the idea,” Al Kazim said.
“Once we are done with this event, we will plan to bring an international competition next year. We will try to get boxers from Pakistan, India, Nepal, Kazakhstan,Uzbekistan etc. That’s part of a long-term strategy to promote boxing,” he said.
“I hope to get good results through proper media coverage at this event,” he said.
“From this event, we want to take our message to the public. It’s good for the host venue and for us at the federation,” he said.
Action on all the three days will commence at 6:00pm, Al Kazim said.
