Amateur champs on today

Leroy Brown, Gleaner Writer

The curtain comes down on amateur boxing this weekend with the staging of the National Boxing Championships at the Stanley Couch Gym today and tomorrow. The championships, which are being put on by the Jamaica Boxing Board with sponsorship by Burger King, will see 60 boxers from six gyms vying for honours.

Start time this afternoon is 4:00 and the weigh-in and medical examinations will take place at Stanley Couch this morning between 9:00 and 10:00.

The amateur programme, which was dogged by inclement weather throughout the year, is in a development phase and there will be competition not only in the open class but also for juniors and novice boxers. Novice boxers are those with fewer than five fights.

Bruising Gym from Stony Hill will start favourites to take home most medals, but they will get stiff competition from Heavy Metal Gym from St Ann's Bay, Hard Knocks Gym in Savanna-la-Mar, Stanley Couch Gym in Kingston and the Job Walters Gym from Anchovy in St James.