Cuban great Savon calls time on glittering career

Three-time Olympic heavyweight boxing champion Felix Savon announced his retirement from the ring but he will help train Cuba's fighters for the 2004 Athens Olympics, Cuban television reported on Saturday.

Savon was already obliged by international amateur boxing rules to stop competing in September when he turns 34 years old, but the official announcement means he will not take part in the next world championships in Ireland in June.

The six-time world champion had originally intended to fight in Ireland in a final appearance of a glittering career that had transformed him into a popular hero at home, and one of the world's boxing legends.

Cuban television did not say why Savon decided to cut short his remaining active career by several months. But it said he would join the national boxing squad as a coach.

Cuba's sports authorities had unsuccessfully lobbied the International Amateur Boxing Association (IABA) to raise the competitive age limit in the heavyweight categories to 40.

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