Published: Wednesday, 4th August, 2010 5:00pm

Joe Ward set for World Youth Olympics

One of the long term goals of young Moate boxer Joe Ward has been qualification for the Youth Olympic Games Boxing Tournament which will take place in Singapore this month. Twice a World Champion, Ward enjoys competing at the highest level and while he is delighted to have qualified for this inaugural Youth Olympics, the next step will be securing a medal. Unlike the senior Olympics, semi-final losers will have a box-off for the single bronze medal. This tournament has an elite entry due to the stringent qualification process.

The Youth Olympic Games Boxing Tournament will take place in the International Convention Centre, Singapore, from August 21st to August 25th. The first ever Summer Youth Olympic Games will bring together approximately 3,600 athletes and 1450 officials

The YOG Boxing competition will feature 66 boxers - six boxers in each of the 11 weight categories, from light flyweight to super heavyweight.

Of the 66 places, 44 will go to the best placed boxers in each weight category at the recent Youth World Boxing Championships, 20 will be allocated as Universality places (to ensure representation from as many countries as possible) and two places will go to the host nation. Each country can enter one boxer per weight category, and a maximum of three boxers in total.

There will be three phases in the Boxing competition: preliminaries, semi-finals and finals. On the day before competition starts, four boxers will be drawn to box in the preliminary round, and two boxers will be drawn directly to fight each other in the semi-final round. Winners of the two preliminary round bouts will advance to fight each other in the semi final round. The losers of the semi-finals will compete for the bronze medal, and the winners will advance to the gold medal bout.

Each bout will be made up of four rounds, with each rounding lasts two minutes, with a one-minute rest period between rounds.

The training over the last few months has been very demanding and has included sparring with the senior internationals, not the usual menu for a sixteen year old. A lack of competition in the lead up to the games is a cause for some concern as no amount of sparring can deliver the sharpness that competition brings out in a boxer.

Joe Ward is a wonderful talent, an athlete who could have made a successful career in many sports but as he becomes the first ever Youth Olympic Games representative from this locality we wish him every success in his endeavours. We are confident that Joe will represent himself, his family, his club and his country with an honesty of effort that can never be faulted.