Kenny Lally has landed in Baku, Azerbaijan, armed with a couple of legal weapons.
Fresh from a 10-day training camp in Germany, he's packing some dynamite in his fists he intends to use in the ring next week when the sparks begin to fly at the elite world boxing championships.
Lally, a 21-year-old member of the Inner City Boxing Club in Prince George is among a group of close to 70 boxers entered in the 52-kilogram weight class. A total of 685 boxers from 127 countries have confirmed entry in the 13-day tournament.
The tournament is a qualifying event for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Lally will have to win three bouts to lock up an Olympic team berth. He will need six straight victories in the single-elimination tournament to make it to the medal round.
Gold-medal matches will be contested on Oct. 8.
The Canadian team includes Alex Rynn of Calgary (60 kg), Yves Ulysse Jr. of Montreal (64kg), Custio Clayton of Halifax (69 kg) and Samir El Mais (of Windsor, Ont. (91 kg). Adrian Teodorescu, Sylvain Gagnon and Daniel Trpanier are in Baku as Canadian team coaches.
Weigh-in sessions are scheduled for Sunday, with the matches set to begin on Monday.
Results from the world championships will be available through the AIBA live scoring system at www.aiba.org. Starting with the round of 16 bouts and through to the championship finals, all matches will be webcast live on www.AIBAboxingTV.com and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/aibaboxingtv.
n Inner City head coach Bob Pegues served as head coach of the Canadian team at the Youth Commonwealth Games that wrapped up last week on the Isle of Man, an island in the Irish Sea between Ireland and England.
With Pegues in their corner, Jesse Brown of Mission won a silver medal in the 56 kg weight class, while Cody Crowley of Douro, Ont., captured bronze in the 75 kg tournament.
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