MONTEGO BAY, St James — With the Jamaica Boxing Association (JBA) aiming to send a team to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, World Boxing President Boris van der Vorst has pledged his support for the sport’s local development.

Van der Vorst, who arrived in Jamaica on Saturday for a four-day visit, reaffirmed his commitment to strengthening the country’s boxing programme and said that discussions to that end are far advanced with Jamaica Boxing Association (JBA) President “Bomber” Stephen Jones.

“We are establishing some ideas how we can improve the boxing development in Jamaica because we want to see some great champs from Jamaica in the near future for the World Championships in England but also for World Boxing Gloves and it’s also important not only to develop grassroots boxing but also to organise international competitions in Jamaica,” van der Vorst told the Jamaica Observer during his visit on Sunday to the Montego Bay Boxing Gym where he attended a boxing demonstration from students participating in the Gloves over Gun programme.

Following the reinclusion of the Olympic Boxing programme, the World Boxing boss noted that the aim is to develop international competitions which he expects the Caribbean region to participate in.

“Jamaica, for me, is already the hub because Jamaica was the first great national federation from the Caribbean who joined World Boxing so I am really looking forward to working together with Jamaica,” he said.

For his part, Jones, who was recently elected to sit on the Pan American Boxing Confederation executive at its inaugural congress which was held in Panama City, Panama, expressed confidence that Jamaica will field a team to the Los Angeles Olympics.

The goal ultimately is Olympic boxing. So boxing now bring reinstated into the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, we are confident that we will have boxers represented from Jamaica on that stage,” Jones said.

“We do have on our way, the World Boxing putting on competitions where we will send our elite boxers to hone their skills to get the activity and to continue the training,” he added.

Jones explained that currently the Gloves over Gun monthly Futures competition is in place.

“So, we will use the platform that we have here monthly, the Futures programme, to show the talent that we have to help them hone their skills, but the international stages that will be coming up next year, we will have representatives there. We will have representatives, some at the end of this year, but ultimately we are confident that we will have boxers in the 2028 Olympics,” Jones said.

Meanwhile, president of the Jamaica Olympic Association, Christopher Samuda noted that recently the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Andrew Parsons paid an international visit to Jamaica and was also impressed with the para sports programme.

One of the main objectives was to meet with our stakeholders to see at what stage we are with our para ports in Jamaica. He was very impressed with how we have built out an infrastructure in terms of our parish based construction, in terms of how we have engaged the young people in the various activities and the various core disciplines,” Samuda, who was a part of the party which visited the Montego Bay Boxing Gym on Sunday.

“He met with quite a few of our stakeholders, our sponsors, our partners, public and private sector interest; because we wanted to ensure that he understands the perspectives of our stakeholders that he in turn could make certain recommendations as to how we could fully engaged our financiers, our capitalists our stakeholders,” Samuda explained.