Mr. Ha – Boxing Association of Korea is working for spread of boxing in the whole country

Mr. Ha Yong Hwan is the President of the Boxing Association of Korea which is one of the most successful organization in the history of the Asian boxing competitions. Mr. Ha introduced South Korea’s current boxing life, their national events and work to regain their place in the Asian top nations.
South Korea was the best Asian boxing country in the ’80s when they performed as top class in all of the Olympic Games, AIBA World Boxing Championships and Asian Boxing Championships. South Korea has got amazing traditions in boxing and their facilities are among the bests in the whole Asian continent. Kazakhstan’s coach Mr. Bolat Niyazymbetov has been working in South Korea since March and his hard work and experiences could be the way of the future successes.

– Could you please introduce your country’s boxing life?
– The South Korean boxers competed at the very first time in the London 1948 Olympic Games and since then we have been there in all of the Olympics excluding Moscow in 1980. South Korea achieved altogether 3 gold medals, 7 silver and 10 bronze in the boxing history of the Olympic Games.
We have been holding the selection competition for the South Korean squad semi-annually to find the bests in our country. Our next big event is the Korean National Sports Festival which we host every year for elite, youth and juniors boxers for both genders.
Besides to these main events we have got many other, at least 6-7 national boxing competitions every year to raise the experiences of our boxers. Lastly, of we have got enough budget in the association, we try to participate and send our athletes to as many international events as possible. We will be there in the ASBC Asian Confederation Women’s Boxing Championships in Ho Chi Minh City and also in the AIBA Women’s Youth World Boxing Championships still this year.

– Would you like to tell us your strategic plans for the future and the key developments in your country?
– The Boxing Association of Korea is working for spread of boxing in the whole country. Boxing is one of the unpopular sports in Korea so we make an effort to spread our sport in every region of the country. We believe that these efforts will impacts on increasing the number of the boxers in South Korea. We also try to develop the system of boxing like our Taekwondo Association is working in Korea. Through our systematized certification system, we expect the level of our professional coaches will be increased.

– What are the main strengths and issues in your boxing life?
– The main strength of the Korean boxing life is the well-entrenched elite sports system so we can stably elite boxing athletes in order to assist the way of the development. Moreover the main issue of the Korean Boxing is to spread boxing in every region of the country. Our final goal is a program: “Boxing for all like Sports for all”.