OZschwitz, NSW: Female serfs forbidden to box

Subject: OZschwitz, NSW: Female serfs forbidden to box Fri Jul 25, 2008 7:33 pm

ELEANOR BOWDEN, 23, preparing to contest the Australian Women's Amateur Boxing Championships in Melbourne this weekend, conceded during her final preparation at Daceyville that the boys did look after her.

One of the smallish number of girls and women who have strapped on the gloves and done battle with fellow females, she has found the supply of female sparring partners limited, so the boys have had to fill in.

Yes, said the 54-kilogram division dynamo, taking a break from training at the Police & Citizens Youth Club gymnasium, the boys did hit harder than her, and yes, they did pull their punches.

Bowden, who left school at 16 and immediately took up boxing, is a veteran of 17 fights for 11 wins. She has fought four times in national championships and won two silver medals.

She will join a 31-year-old legal secretary, Maria Pittiglio, fighting in the 57-kilogram division, to represent NSW in the national championships. Like Pittiglio, Bowden is sour that NSW has banned women boxing and the state's female pugs have to fight interstate or in the ACT.

The ban means they have to pay their way whereas the male amateurs fighting in the national titles are subsidised. It is an incongruity that Arthur Tunstall, secretary of the NSW Amateur Boxing Association, acknowledges with sadness.

Tunstall, 86, who is about to celebrate 60 years in his position, confesses he once opposed women boxing but not when he saw them pushing their way into other all-male preserves, such as firefighting and front-line soldiering.

"My attitude is that if they insist they can do anything, if they want equality, let them box," he said. But because female boxing was not allowed in NSW - the only state with such a prohibition - and the girls could not contribute to amateur boxing promotions, they could not get a subsidy.

Bowden, punching and jabbing into the gloves of veteran trainer Istvan Solyom, said: "I love boxing, watching it, reading about it. All sports are the same. If you want to be competitive in sport, go for it. People just take boxing badly because they see people punching each other."

LNK

OZschwitz, NSW: Female serfs forbidden to box

OZschwitz, NSW: Female serfs forbidden to box

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