By Tom Degun

aiba Womens_World_Championships_10-07-12July 10 - The International Boxing Association (AIBA) has announced that the next Women's World Championships in 2014 will be staged in a city in Canada that has not yet been confirmed.

The decision was made by the AIBA Executive Board at its meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, and it is a huge boost for Canada given the growing prominence of women's boxing since it was voted onto the Olympic programme by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at their Session in 2009.

The women's version of the sport will make its official Olympic debut at London 2012 at ExCeL in less than a month in the three weights of flyweight, lightweight and middleweight.

Pat Fiacco, President of Boxing Canada, admitted he is delighted to see the prestigious competition come to his country.

"Canada has a huge tradition in boxing and has been always a great advocate of women boxing," said Fiacco, who is also the Mayor of Regina.

"I feel really proud that my country will host the 2014 AIBA Women's World Boxing Championships and I want to thank all AIBA Executive Board members for their decision.

"I promise that you will not be disappointed."

This year's Women's World Championships, which were staged in Qinhuangdao, China in May, was the biggest event to date with the competition acting as the sole qualifier for women to the London 2012 Olympics.

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For the 2014 edition of the event Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto (pictured above) and Quebec have all been put forward as possible host cities for the competition but the final decision is not expected until the end of the year.

The gathering of the AIBA Executive Board in Bangkok also saw two more major events allocated with the 2013 Junior World Boxing Championships awarded to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the 2014 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships given to Sofia, Bulgaria.

Giving Kyiv the 2013 Junior World Boxing Championships is no major surprise as Ukraine recently signed up to the AIBA-owned competition World Series of Boxing (WSB) and successfully hosted the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship.

"We are delighted to have been awarded the 2013 AIBA Junior World Boxing Championships," said Ukrainian Boxing Federation (FBU) President Vladimir Prodyvus.

"The year of 2013 will celebrate the 100 years of Soviet Boxing and we will make sure that this competition will be part of great celebrations.

"Kyiv will be where the stars ignite."

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There was also no shock when Bulgaria was awarded the AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships as the country is also set to join the WSB in the coming weeks and is known to have a strong relationship with AIBA.

Emilia Grueva, the international relations manager of the Bulgarian Boxing Association, said that Sofia will make a great host of the competition.

"On behalf of Krassimir Ininski, the President of the Bulgarian Boxing Association, I want to thank the AIBA Executive Board for putting such confidence in us," said Grueva.

"We will put all our efforts in the organisation of this competition and I can assure you that the 2014 AIBA Youth World Boxing Championships will be one to remember."

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