The Curacao Boxing Association (CuraBox) welcomes Len Huard, the President of the Dutch Boxing Federation NBB (Nederlandse Boks Bond).
Len’s visit to Curacao marks the mutual ambition to intensify the cooperation with the Dutch Boxing Federation. Len: “Curacao has great boxers. It is always a pleasure to see nos yu di Korsou perform and win prices in Dutch Competitions. It is not only our historical relationship, but especially the effort of people like CuraBox president Edwin Baas that we can combine talent and resources”
In 2010 it was the first time that boxers from Curaçao participated in the Dutch Championships. Boxers from Curaçao have been very successful in the last three years and they are expected to perform well again during the National Championships in November this year.
Len started in the board as Secretary-General in 2022 and has been appointed as President in 2023. Len has roots in Curacao and he started his carreer as an Attorney at the Caribbean law-firm VANEPS. He has worked in Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire and Sint Maarten. Len now owns a law-firm in Amsterdam.
Len is not sitting still on Curaçao. In addition to many family events, Len trained every evening after arrival during Edwin Baas’s training sessions. In the coming week they will also visit as many boxing clubs as possible and the fourth Supreme international boxing event in SDK is on the agenda on Saturday evening, April 27.
Every year, mostly in and around the month of July, hundreds of young people leave Curaçao to continue their studies abroad, usually the Netherlands. There are also many boxers among them. Only a few succeed in continuing with boxing in the Netherlands. In addition to the difficulty of the study, there are many other causes such as an insufficient budget to pay contributions, problems in the field of housing, language, missing parents, family and friends and there are also many who experience a culture shock because life over there is very different with many distractions.
The few who do continue with boxing appear to do very well. Some of them who recently left Curaçao and doing well in European competition are; Jaydon Dania, Raekwon Baas, Quinlan Winterdal and Andy Gabriel.
To ensure that the boxers end up in the right places, contact with the Dutch boxing association and boxing schools in the Netherlands is very important.