Boxing: Nationals missing Games representatives

Commonwealth Games representatives Daniel Headifen, of Wellington, and Kahu Bentson, of Auckland, are the only amateur boxers defending their titles at the national championships in Timaru this weekend.

Headifen has his sights on another light-welterweight success, while Bentson is the logical light-middleweight favourite.

Both lost to West Indian opponents at Manchester, Headifen taking Jamaican Sheldon Rudolph to a points countback and Bentson conceding a six-point margin to Sylvester Greenidge of Barbados.

Games representatives Daniel Codling, an Auckland welterweight, and Shane Cameron, a Feilding heavyweight, have turned professional.

Soulan Pownceby, who is training with national coach Phil Shatford in Christchurch but will represent Waikato, has left the middleweight division he won for Auckland at Taupo last year to compete as a light heavyweight.

New Zealand Boxing media officer Barry Leabourn attributed the high turnover of titleholders to a "four-year cycle" which inevitably follows Commonwealth Games.

"It's a changing of the guard, not just some of those who went to Manchester but others who got to Oceania level.

"That is balanced by up to eight of our best intermediate and junior boxers making their first appearances in the senior ranks."

Among them are Brent Snadden, of Hawkes Bay, Southland's Carl Dickey and Wellington's Carl Saltmarsh, who won intermediate titles at Taupo, and Carl Commons, of Canterbury, a shock loser in his 63.5kg final.

Snadden is challenging for the featherweight championship vacated by Canterbury's Michael Newton, and twin brother Shane is expected to continue a long-standing rivalry with Dion O'Rourke, of Manawatu, for the bantamweight crown.

Shatford was confident Canterbury's Noah Lopez would regain the lightweight title, but Commons and Dickey face a tough senior baptism in the same division as Headifen.

The withdrawal of Canterbury's Julian Scully has left the welterweight class wide open, but Bentson dominates a four-man light-middleweight entry which also includes Cantabrians Chad Bates and Jason McLarn.

Stephen McIver, of Canterbury, the 1997 light-heavyweight champion, is again a middleweight contender, with Waikato's Corey Muller a likely opponent in the final.

The championships start on Friday and continue with the junior finals on Saturday night and the senior finals from 4pm on Sunday.

- NZPA