Association donates K500 to boxing tournament

Sports

THE North-East boxing tournament on Friday partnered with West New Britain’s (WNB) Bali Witu Association in Port Moresby with the association donating K500 for the month-long tournament.
Professional boxer and national lightweight champion Junior Kauko Raka, who hails from Bali Witu in WNB, said the support came from the association members in Port Moresby with the tournament on track with fights for this month.
“This is the Bali Witu Association for people living in Port Moresby and they’ve come on board to help with what I am doing up at ATS (Air Transport Squadron) block two,” he said.
“We’ve been having some really good fights in our tournament and participation coming from people in the community and other boxing clubs in Port Moresby is great.
“This is an initiative from me and Spencer Francis, who is also a professional boxer, and we both live up at ATS so we thought it would be something good to pull the concentration of youths in the city.
“Everything we have planned is going well and we hope to wind down with finals on Nov 28,” Raka said.
Association chairman Bertrand Vagelo said the tournament was a worthwhile initiative that provided an avenue for youths to participate in a meaningful activity.
“Junior is part of our association and we’re really happy to see the initiative that he has taken to support the youths.
“We also have youths in the city that would like to be part of this and this is something useful that they can look forward to as a pathway in sports.
“Sports is an untapped avenue that most of our youths have turned a blind eye to so our association wants to help provide that platform for the young people.”