EQUIPMENT worth £5,000 was presented to several amateur boxing clubs by the president of the Professional Boxing Union of Ireland, Mel Christle, last night.

The clubs benefitting from the grants were: Sunnyside from Cork, Drimnagh and St Columbanus's from Dublin, Paulstown from Kilkenny and St Agnes Club in Belfast.

In making the presentation Christle singled out the new club from Windy Arbour, near Dundrum in Dublin, as one of the clubs which might very well produce Irish champions in the near future. He also pointed out that established clubs like Sunnyside, Drimnagh and St Agnes in Belfast, as well as Paulstown, had already contributed their share to Irish amateur boxing over a period of years.

As well as the equipment worth £5,000, the PBUI also presented trophies to the value of £1,000 and confirmed that this would be an annual event.

"We are all members of the same family and it would be ridiculous to regard ourselves as other than boxing people. We hold the same love of boxing together and I can promise on behalf of the BUI that these small gestures will continue to be made to amateur boxing by the professional game in the future and that, in so far as we can, they will be increased," Christle said.