Sheffield major events company, MLS, has been awarded a central role in staging the most prestigious amateur boxing tournament to take place in Great Britain since the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The European Continental Olympic Boxing Qualifying Tournament for Tokyo 2020 will be staged on London’s Olympic Park at the Copper Box Arena, in March 2020. Great Britain has been selected by the IOC to stage the tournament and MLS will perform the roles of Event Director and Venue Operations.
With over 400 boxers, both male and female, across all Olympic weight categories, the event will span 10 days of competition and will be a huge draw for all Olympic hopefuls in Europe looking to qualify for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Matt Holt, CEO of GB Boxing confirmed the appointment.
“We are delighted to be working in partnership with MLS on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification event. MLS have a great track record of delivering quality events both in boxing and other Olympic and Paralympic sports, and we have every confidence that the event at the Copper Box in London in March will provide Europe’s best boxers with the best stage possible to qualify for the forthcoming Olympic Games.”
John Timms, MLS’ Director of Events, will be the appointed Event Director, whilst Alison Bridge, senior events manager at MLS, will oversee Venue Operations. John is proud to have received GB Boxing’s and UK Sport’s nod of approval.
“Our relationship with GB Boxing and knowledge of boxing has grown over the years with staging the annual GB Boxing Championships in Sheffield, and then operating the GB’s Lionhearts boxing franchise in the World Series of Boxing over the past few years. This event demonstrates such confidence in our work, and we will ensure we stage one of the best tournaments held on British soil,” said John.
The event in March adds to an illustrious and growing portfolio of events the Sheffield-based events company have secured and delivered. Most recently, this summer, MLS staged the entire sports programme and international administration for the 2019 World Transplant Games held in the North East, whilst earlier in the year they helped deliver the ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup Series.
The partnership with British Canoeing continues, as MLS will also help stage the European Canoe Slalom Championships in 2020 and have assisted British Canoeing in securing the World Canoe Slalom Championships in 2023.
MLS Managing Director, Yuri Matischen paid tribute to his fellow directors, (Sarah Backovic and John), current and former staff, for the company’s ongoing success in a highly competitive world of sports management.
Yuri said: “Our founding Chairman, Gerry Montgomery, passed away this summer, but he would have been proud as punch to know that next year we will be staging three international elite performance events.
“We are particularly proud of helping stage the World Para Powerlifting Championships in Manchester in February 2020, as we have a long affinity with supporting Paralympic athletes having also staged the World Goalball Championships, World and European Boccia Championships, IPC Shooting World Cup, Factor 40 Paralympic Table Tennis and the European Wheelchair Fencing Championships.”
MLS already work in partnership with national charity Transplant Sport UK in providing a turnkey management solution to staging the annual Westfield Health British Transplant Games, which involves 3,000 participants across four days of competition, in one of the country’s largest multi-sports festivals, promoting the benefits of organ donation and transplantation and celebrating the lives of transplant recipients and their donors.
The 2019 British Games were held in Newport and generated a UK BBC documentary and a media reach of over one billion spanning both the British and World Transplant Games.
The two Sheffield based organisations, GB Boxing and MLS, will be in the same ring once again in staging the 2019 GB Boxing Championships in Sheffield’s English Institute of Sport on Thursday 5th December.
The ball keeps on rolling for MLS, as they begin a journey with British Blind Sport (BBS) and their ambitions to host the 2023 IBSA World Games for visually impaired athletes. Never staged in the UK, BBS and MLS are working with cities to find a host partner that can persuade the International Blind Sports Association to award the Games to the UK, where over 2 million people suffer from the loss of sight.
Both GB Boxing and MLS will be sharing a platform at the Sheffield Chamber’s B2B Exhibition at Ponds Forge on Wednesday 23rd October, when exhibitors and visitors will be able to win tickets to the GB Championships and bid for Anthony Joshua’s signed glove with proceeds to Sheffield Futures, GB Boxing’s official charity.
Pic: GB boxer Luke McCormack (red) taking part in the European Games in 2019.
