Doha: Qatari boxer Hakan Eresker qualified AIBA World Boxing Championships 2017 which will take place in Hamburg from August 25 to September 3.
Hakan will compete in the 60 Kg category with global stars from across the world. A total of 260 boxers are expected to compete in the championships in 10 categories.
His qualification means Qatar will participate in the competition for the second time ever. The first time was when Doha hosted the competition in 2015, the first Middle-Eastern company to host the event. International Boxing Association said that the Doha edition was the best one in the history of the competition.
The choice of Hamburg as the host of this year's competition was decided in Doha, after the bid it proposed to the executive committee of the association on the sidelines of the Doha competition.
President of the Qatar Boxing Federation Yousuf Ali Al Kazim dedicated Monday's achievement to President of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) HE Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al-Thani, praising the support Qatari boxing received from QOC.
He added that the support also represented a challenge for the federation to continue those achievements.
Kazim expressed his happiness that Qatar will be presented once more in the competition, noting that this time it came through qualifiers compared to the 2015 edition when Doha was the host. He also praised Eresker for his commitment to improving his sporting performance, noting that the player became the first boxer in Qatar's history to reach the Olympics in Rio 2016.
Kazim stressed that qualifying to the World Boxing Championships through Asia was not an easy feat, especially due to the popularity of the game on the continent. There were many world champions and Olympians from Asia as well.
