Solomon Islands' Honiara Amateur Boxing Association is to host its first ever international tournament this month.
An amateur boxing match at the multi-purpose hall in Honiara. Photo: Honiara Amateur Boxing Association
It's a significant undertaking in a country without any public boxing facilities or internationally qualified referees.
The Honiara Amateur Boxing Association's Johnathan Tapsell said international boxing tournaments had been held in Honiara before but always under the auspices of the national federation.
Mr Tapsell said this month's tournament would see men and women boxers from Kairuku Amateur Boxing Association in Papua New Guinea's Central Province hosted in Solomon Islands' capital for two days of competition.
"The tournament will start on the 25th of October and it will actually run over two nights...it will be held at the multi-purpose hall in Honiara which can hold several hundred people," Mr Tapsell said.
International sporting events are few and far between in Solomon Islands and Mr Tapsell said the tournament would be a great spectacle for Honiara residents.
Spectators watch an amateur boxing match at the multi-purpose hall in Honiara Solomon Islands. Photo: Honiara Amateur Boxing Association
But it was also part of the association's longer term build up to the 2023 Pacific Games which will be hosted by Solomon Islands.
There are many challenges for all sports associations and federations in Solomon Islands in preparing for the games, but Mr Tapsell said the main factors were a lack of sports facilities, funding and administrative know-how.
"Just to give you a sense of the practical challenges faced by boxing, there are no dedicated boxing facilities really in the whole country," Mr Tapsell said.
"And there are various challenges associated with our relationship to international governing bodies. Finding the money to finance affiliation fees to those bodies."
Finding qualified referees and officials for major tournaments was also a problem.
"Unfortunately in the Solomon Islands at present we don't have any officials that are qualified in accordance with the international regulatory body for amateur boxing. Which is a rather big issue here for the sport of boxing in terms of moving forward," he said.
Boxers from the Solomon Pride Boxing Club training in Honiara. Photo: Solomon Pride Boxing Club
But Mr Tapsell said it was not all doom and gloom.
"One area that certainly is not a challenge is with the enthusiasm and motivation of the boxers," Tapsell said. "So there are very very many young men here who enjoy the sport of boxing and like to participate in it and they really do give it a hundred percent."
Solomon Islands boxers could only dream of the opportunities that their counterparts in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere in the region had access to.
"They train hard, they fight very hard. So the onus is really on those in the positions of power in the sporting hierarchy to ensure that the local boxers here in Solomon Islands have the opportunities that they deserve."
Which is why Mr Tapsell was really hoping the upcoming international tournament would be a success.
"Which really means that we can make it happen in a financially sustainable way and such that a sufficient number of local boxers have an opportunity to participate."
