[kenyan_cheena]

VINCENNES REVEALS ENTRANTS
FOR QUALIFYING LEAGUE

Saturday 20 July 2002

Speaking live from Houston on ESPN in the lead-up to tonight's Reliant Park Pavilion fight card, Heavyweight Boxing Federation President Michael Vincennes has unveiled the 96-man field for the organisation's upcoming Qualifying League tournament. The announcement came as something of a surprise as it was believed that this information would not be made public for another week. The cynics might say that it was a deliberate attempt to steal some of the International Boxing League's thunder on the eve of Monday's MGM Grand "Opening Night" but Vincennes dismissed that possibility.

"I hardly think so," he said, laughing. "What I've revealed tonight doesn't even really compare to what Mr. Molk and his associates will be doing on Monday night. The truth is that, with the exception of our African league, we had already decided on which entrants from our feeder leagues would be competing in the Qualifying League. After the results of Thursday's Johannesburg event, we were able to complete the field so there was no reason to delay this announcement."

Following is a group-by-group breakdown of the Qualifying League entrants. The top two seedings in each group are reserved for the losing semi-finalists and finalists in the feeder league tournaments, which is why they are currently designated as "To Be Determined":

GROUP ONE

1(1) To Be Determined (TBD)
2(24) TBD
3(36) Shakes Qoboza, South Africa
4(48) Delbert Craw, USA
5(60) Romy Alvarez, USA
6(72) Antonio Serioux, Canada
7(84) Mike Hanson, USA
8(96) Sylvain Ribery, France

GROUP TWO

1(2) TBD
2(23) TBD
3(35) Vittorio Campolo, Italy
4(47) Anaclet Wamba, Congo
5(59) Tony Doyle, USA
6(71) Yeti Yates, England
7(83) Mark Jones, USA
8(95) Nathan Williams, USA

GROUP THREE

1(3) TBD
2(22) TBD
3(34) Bran Baggett, Ireland
4(46) Zolilie Letlake, South Africa
5(58) Hans Birkie, Germany
6(70) Chris Creed, Canada
7(82) Mikkel Randeris, Denmark
8(94) Ariel Reyes, Cuba

GROUP FOUR

1(4) TBD
2(21) TBD
3(33) Lou Bailey, USA
4(45) Jim Chang Kai, Taiwan
5(57) Jean-Pierre Coopman, Belgium
6(69) Jerry Quarry, USA
7(81) Carl Williams, USA
8(93) Michael Richardson, England

GROUP FIVE

1(5) TBD
2(20) TBD
3(32) Olaf Heiberg, Norway
4(44) Fred Fulton, USA
5(56) Leonidas Jaskucionis, Lithuania
6(68) Marco Santino, USA
7(80) Deutron Shelby, USA
8(92) Yevgeny Semshov, Russia

GROUP SIX

1(6) TBD
2(19) TBD
3(31) Leonardo Barbaressi, Argentina
4(43) Richard Dunn, England
5(55) Tim Carlisle, USA
6(67) David Kane, USA
7(79) John Tate, USA
8(91) Sergey Pogrebnyak, Russia

GROUP SEVEN

1(7) TBD
2(18) TBD
3(30) Cleaver Twidell, USA
4(42) Brett Ranford, USA
5(54) Roy Harris, USA
6(66) Dre Linton, USA
7(78) Mark Elwood, USA
8(90) Jan Podolski, Germany

GROUP EIGHT

1(8) TBD
2(17) TBD
3(29) Greg Williams, USA
4(41) Omelio Agramonte, Cuba
5(53) Drago Bencek, Slovenia
6(65) Steve Finley, USA
7(77) Luis Gomez, USA
8(89) Dwayne Peters, Canada

GROUP NINE

1(9) TBD
2(16) TBD
3(28) Terry Daniels, USA
4(40) Howard King, USA
5(52) Charles Bradley, England
6(64) Max Cayton, USA
7(76) Aleksandr Bystrov, Russia
8(88) Torsten Hildebrand, Germany

GROUP TEN

1(10) TBD
2(15) TBD
3(27) Clarence Burman, USA
4(39) Bruce Crickett, USA
5(51) Charley Powell, USA
6(63) Orlin Norris, USA
7(75) Nicolas Gallas, France
8(87) Taoufik Belbouli, France

GROUP ELEVEN

1(11) TBD
2(14) TBD
3(26) Carmine Vingo, USA
4(38) Ernie Schaaf, USA
5(50) Grantham Abdul-Kafar, Egypt
6(62) Kent Ares, Ireland
7(74) Sean Hargraves, USA
8(86) Vasily Anyukov, Russia

GROUP TWELVE

1(12) TBD
2(13) TBD
3(25) Rex Layne, USA
4(37) Larry Gains, Canada
5(49) Kalolo Umaga, Samoa
6(61) Scott Mundt, Germany
7(73) Hugh Phillips, USA
8(85) Lee Q. Murray, USA

(to be continued)