On Thursday of last week August 2nd I made my way to the Excel arena in East London Dockland to watch an Olympic Games session of Boxing in the afternoon. Although the event was scheduled for 1.30 because I was still suffering with sore feet so I decided to make my way early with a plan to visit the Olympics Live screen at Woolwich afterwards to watch events rather than face the rush on the way back. Although the remedy of plasters had appeared to deal with the blisters I was not as mobile as I would have wished.
I took a train to Victoria and from there the Circle Line to Monument and a good walk to Bank for the Dockland Light Railway to Customs House. It was a Dockland Light Railway route not previously taken and my first visit to the extraordinary Excel International Exhibition and convention centre.
There is a wide bridge from the station down to an area of Inns and restaurants created from converted dockland buildings in what I was later to learn had been a carefully planned enterprise with Arab money to regenerate this part of London despite being only a short distance away from the Millennium Dome development. Because of the rain I remained on the bridge and then found a seat in the sunshine to eat a sandwich and a carton of grapes purchased the previous evening from the supermarket.
As you approach the Excel stadium from this station you do not appreciate that it is such a ginormous building and when an assistant declared that the Boxing arena involved a half mile walk within the complex he was not mistaken in attempting to convey something of its huge nature. The building covers 100000 square feet and was only created in 2000 and then acquired by Abu Dhabi as a National Exhibitions centre. The building was extended in 2010 with a view to being used for a number of Olympic Games. There is a wide internal ground level boulevard with catering outlets and basement level toilet facilities; there are two huge spaces on either side of the boulevard which for the Games was dived into five arena spaces each with adjacent toilet and food and drink areas. The Arenas were used for Boxing, Judo, Fencing, Table Tennis, and Tackwondo, Wrestling and Weightlifting with space for 6000 to 10000 spectators. The centre has been used in the past for Wrestling and Boxing as well as for a Triathlon event.
The most famous use was for the G20 Leaders summit in 2009 with perhaps X Factor auditions and an International Arms Fair closely following. The International Motor and Fashion Show as well the Annual Boat show are other major events which have been held The owners have also initiated a number of projects to assist the local community. I am subsequently impressed by the round the year series of conventions planned and which includes a score of professional and technical gatherings noting also the Star Trek event in the autumn this year when all the star performers of the various series are coming to London over its three days and where admission passes range from £30 a day session to £3000 for the deluxé status in which you get sessions with the stars, front seats and attendance at parties.
The Boxing competition commanded the 10000 seat arena with its large reception hall for concessions and facilities and I was allocated a good seat about midway in one corner with the result that I could stretch my legs between the seats in the row below and had a free seat to one side. There were eight bouts divided into two weight categories and in the second of 75 Kilos I was able to witness Anthony Ogogo win his bout against the world number 1 Levgen Kytrov in a close context which ended 18 to 18 and where he was given the decision on countback.
Before commenting further on Anthony’s performance at the games and who comes from Lowestoft and was a promising footballer playing for Norwich City until 14 years of age some personal history. At school I entered into the inter house Boxing competition when I was 13/14 although I had received no boxing training or appeared in a ring before. It was an interesting experience in which the fight was stopped in the second round because I was being hit and refused to just defend as the house coach in my corner suggested. I had not disclosed to the aunties that I had entered the competition and they commented that my face looked puffy. I had been invited to join the school boxing club as a result of my endeavour but the aunties refused. I was very disappointed because I had been amazed at myself and enjoyed the experience and had not wanted the fight to be stopped.
I had listened to professional Boxing on the radio and then watched on Television over the years impressed with the amateur tradition in the UK but highly sceptical about professional Boxing especially in the USA because of the failure to settle on one system with at least four world title organisations at present and because of long history of corruption and fighters throwing fights.
This was the first time I had watched Boxing in an arena. I was first struck by the space between the Boxing Square (Ring) and the first spectator seats. Given the speed of the fights and the wearing of protective head gear it was difficult to see if the blows were effective and the reaction of the crowd appeared to be centred on the aggression of the boxer rather than on the effectiveness of a punch. There were screens but these were small and of no use in terms of seeing what was happening. Unlike the last Olympic Games the agreed scoring for the judges is not shown with the results coming up only at the end of each of the first two rounds. You then wait for the official result at the end of the third to add to suspense with the Boxers and their coaches unaware of the outcome until it is announced.
Anthony had impressively defeated junior Castillo Martinez of Dominica in the first round of 32 13-6 and in his last 16 contest he beat Stefan Hartel 15-10 to suggests he as one of four British male boxers Anthony Joshua, Fred Evans, and Luke Campbell on their way to doing so. Unfortunately he met a powerful Brazilian boxer, Esquiva Falcao Florentino, who took command and achieved a knock down which hurt Anthony who went on to lose the contest 16-9. I will report separately on the outcome of the three Boxing Finals involving British Boxers later, together with the winning performance of the first woman to win an Olympic Gold medal in Boxing Nicola Adams from Leeds.
What is now the future for Anthony Ogogo born 24th November in 1988 to a Nigerian father and English mother in a family which also includes four sisters? Anthony won IABA World Championship in 2005 in Liverpool when the was 17 years of age but lost in the final of the 2010 Commonwealth Games,
Anthony has already attempted to exploit his good looks as a semi professional model and he also appeared in Celebrity Hijack finishing fourth. He has also gained advertising contracts with Subway. Getting Gold or Silver at the Olympic games can lead to a professional Boxing career as with Amir Khan who gained silver but went on to become a World Champion twice.
After the event I decided to make my way back to Croydon rather than go to on to Woolwich. It was a good decision because the news of further gold medals came as I was leaving the stadium and on the packed overground train back to the Bank Station. Back in Croydon I had a MacDonald’s Chicken Sandwich meal with Diet Coke taken to my room and then went out later to Waitrose of a can of coke and a bottle of water plus a BLT for the morning.
I now turn to my two extraordinary and wonderful days Olympic Park.
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