Boxing-Julie’s IOC scholarship revoked |10 April 2008
The first was held in Algiers, Algeria from January 22 to February 1 and the second in Windhoek, Namibia, from March 22 to April 2.
The first Seychellois fighter to win a gold medal at the African Boxing Championship, in 2004 in Gaborone, Botswana, earning him automatic qualification for the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, that same year, Julie decided to stay behind instead of leaving for Algiers with the rest of the Seychelles team to box in the 1st AIBA African Olympic qualifier.
The Seychelles Amateur Boxing Federation (SABF) imposed a three-month ban on him and he was ineligible for selection for the 2nd AIBA qualifier in Windhoek.
Welterweight (69kg) gold medallist at the Seventh Indian Ocean Islands Games (IOIG) in Madagascar in 2007, Julie received the scholarship in early 2006 along with six other Seychellois sportsmen and women.
He was chosen by International Olympic Solidarity to train at the Tunis Centre in Tunisia. But after the Seychelles National Olympic Committee (Snoc) met the SABF, it was decided Julie should train here instead of going to Tunis.
Aged 24, Julie has now set his sights on qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, UK.
The other six Seychellois athletes on IOC-sponsored scholarships are Laser sailor Allan Julie, canoeist Tony Lespoir, swimmer Shrone Austin, France-based heptathlete Céline Laporte and weightlifters Janet Thélermont and Clementina Agricole.
Allan Julie and Lespoir have already qualified for the forthcoming Olympics in Beijing (August 16-24).
The other Seychellois athlete to have qualified for the Games is javelin specialist Lindy Leveau-Agricole.
It is worth noting that this will be five-time former Sportsman of the Year Allan Julie’s fourth Olympic Games after competing in 1996 in Atlanta, USA, in 2000 in Sydney, Australia, and in 2004 in Athens.
This is also the third consecutive time he has been successful in earning his place through the qualifiers.
G. G.