London 2012 blog

In our staff meeting this week, we held a boxing match! Well, not quite, but we did get a fantastic demonstration from some of our 2012 hopefuls.

Between now and 2012 we'll be having a series of briefings on all the sports that will feature at the 2012 Games - Olympic and Paralympic: it’s important for us to understand the sports we’re delivering in 2012 and to remember what we’re about.

The rules of boxing are some of the least understood in Olympic sport yet boxing itself has given us some truly inspirational heroes – from Cassius Clay in 1960 to the UK’s own Amir Khan in 2004. We were joined by another inspirational boxer, ex-international Tony Cesay who is currently involved in training the next generation of Boxing hopefuls. He works with young people in East London, often from disadvantaged backgrounds, getting them off the streets, giving them a focus and something positive to do with their lives.

With characteristic good humour, Tony chatted about why he got into the sport ('well I wasn't born with a Financial Times in my mouth') and was keen to emphasise that between padding/helmet, the weight of gloves and the rules, amateur boxing is one of the safest sports around.

He enlightened us on the finer points of the sport, including the difference between a punch and a slap. Two of Tony's young protégés seemed to have mastered the technique just fine and, judging by their demonstrations of hooks and upper-cuts, the UK can expect some strong contenders at London 2012.

The scoring system in boxing is something that often causes controversy and it was interesting to hear how the rules now demand that three of the five judges must score a clean hit on their electronic system within a second of each other for that point to count, and that only the spectators and not the judges nor the boxers can see the total score until the end of the bout.

We also heard from London-based boxer George Groves who is hoping to secure his place at Beijing 2008 and told us how he loves the thrill of being a in boxing ring...and, more importantly, the thrill of the win.

Sav from the LOCOG Venues team showed us how the ExCel Centre is being prepared for 2012's Boxing competition – even down to what material will be used in the dividing walls. Whether they're building the venues, running the cultural events or paying the invoices, every person working for London 2012 is contributing to the delivery of the world’s greatest sporting event.

Another member of our venues team even had a small demonstration bout with Tony, showing just how far we at London 2012 will go to to understand the event we are staging.