the voice olympics supplement 2

London 2012A happy and glorious Games

London 2012 Olympics souvenir supplementLondon 2012 Olympics souvenir supplementLondon 2012 Olympics souvenir supplement

INSIDE PAGE 28

Team GB’s goldenGames

PAGE 27

SuperSaturdayrevisited

PAGE 35

Africa’s Olympiansshine in London

Full analysis of

the OlympicsGames 2012

| AUGUST 23-29, 2012 26 Voice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplement

Simply The Best

Birmingham basking in London 2012 glory

THE LONDON 2012 Olympic Games will live long in the memory. It will be re-membered for a spec-

tacular opening ceremony, Super Saturday - when Team GB grabbed a trio of gold in 60 glorious minutes - and the crowning of the fi nest sprinter to grace the planet, Usain Bolt.

Add the fact that Team GB’s cyclists, rowers and swimmers and track and fi eld athletes en-sured third place in the medal table, with an unexpected 65 medals, 29 of which were gold, and it was almost the perfect Games in many ways.

ANNIVERSARYFor this correspondent, Su-

per Saturday was the highlight, as heptathlete Jessica Ennis, long jumper Greg Rutherford and mighty Mo Farah all pow-ered to gold medals on a night to remember.

Twenty-four hours later and the greatest sprinter of all time, Bolt, confi rmed his status with

another 100m masterclass to get Jamaica’s 50th anniver-sary of independence under way in grand style. The main man of track and fi eld then underpinned his burgeoning credentials by claiming 200m and 4x100m relay gold, bring-ing home his nation’s baton in record-breaking time.

On occasion while seated in the Olympic Stadium, I thought that the greatest show on Earth had been transported to King-ston, such was the infl uence of Jamaican athletes and their equally charismatic fans.

The Caribbean as a region can take great pride in the Games. Athletes from the Do-minican Republic, Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago and Grena-da gave their followers around the globe a chance to puff out their chests.

Magic moment for me? There were several but Farah, a genuinely likeable man, has to take the plaudits. While Bolt was expected to deliver, no one – apart from mighty Mo

himself and his lovely family- expected the long distance king to come up trumps in two gruelling events. I’ll be very surprised if he does not take the coveted BBC Sports Per-sonality of the Year gong too such was his efforts.

The noise generated in the Olympic Stadium would have registered on the Richter Scale. It was enough to inspire tired athletes, like Farah, when they had very little in the tank. The crowd’s participation was a contributing factor towards

Team GB’s happy and glorious Games throughout the sport-ing festival.

There has been much talk of legacy after the Games. True legacy will only come if youngsters, especially, get the chance to use the fi rst class fa-cilities that 2012 has provided.

SUPPORTThe London 2012 motto has

been ‘inspire a generation.’ The performance of Team GB and others have certainly done that.

Thousands made up the

Games experience; volun-teers, police, the armed forces and they all did their glorious bit and not always in the public eye.

To all those that campaigned for The Voice to gain accredi-tation to the Olympic Stadium for the track and fi eld segment of the Games, I say thank you. Without the powerful and infl u-ential show of support yours truly would have been con-signed to watching all the great action via TV.

Accreditation should be easier for 2016 in Brazil. I won’t be sports editor then but if the

show of support makes life easier for my successor, then the collective will would have succeeded.

As for me, I’m looking to help the sports media within our community gain more re-spect, and press seats, at ma-jor events.

London 2012 has been a success. Not all concerned will be happy, and LOCOG can’t tick all the boxes.

But when all is said and done, the London Olympic Games has to rank among the very best.

By Poppy Brady

POST OLYMPICS there is talk of people suffering withdrawal symptoms now the great-est show on Earth has fi nally come to a close, but Birming-ham is continuing to bask in the glory of being the host city for Jamaica’s Olympic training camp.

The fact that it was praised twice by Jamaican sprint stars Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake minutes after they won both the 200m and the 4x100m re-lay in front of a TV audience of over 20 million has kept the city on a high.

Birmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore called it ‘a wonderful few weeks in the city’s history.’

He said: “Everyone in Bir-mingham was touched by the tributes paid to the city by Us-ain Bolt and his colleagues in

the Jamaican track and fi eld team.

“We’re delighted that Bir-mingham has such a rich Af-rican Caribbean community which has made a signifi cant contribution to the city’s civic, cultural, economic and sport-ing life.

“But much more needs to be done, and at the heart of the council’s work is a recognition that many communities, in-cluding part of the African Car-

ibbean community, still have to share more fully in economic and civic life.”

Beverly Lindsay, who chairs the Association of Ja-maican Nationals (Birming-ham) UK, and who organised a civic fl ag raising ceremony to mark Jamaica’s 50th anniver-sary of independence on Au-gust 6, said: “No one has ever before seen so many smiling, happy faces from the Carib-

bean community uniting in Bir-mingham.

“Events over the past few weeks have generated peace and harmony and a great re-spect for Jamaica. I just give God thanks that I was able to witness such landmark events here in Birmingham.”

Garry Peal, Birmingham’s Olympic training camp co-ordinator, said: “It’s been an unforgettable few weeks. To

have Birmingham praised by the athletes on live TV watched by 22 million people was more than we could ever have wished for.”

Joan ‘LJ’ Hunter of New Style radio, said: “The suc-cess of Jamaica in the Square event celebrating Jamaica’s 50th anniversary of independ-ence, sealed by the success of the athletes has given Jamaica great hope for the future.”

Zena Wooldridge, the University of Birmingham’s director of sport, added: “The athletes’ stay at the university went better than we could ever have hoped for. It turned out to be a fabulous 12 days, with an even more magical 16 days at the Olympics.

“We feel a strong bond has been secured between Bir-mingham and Jamaica – and its people were wonderful to work with.”

“The noise generated in the Olympic

stadium would have registered on the Richter

Scale ”

“The success of the athletes has given Jamaica great hope for

the future ”

Voice sports editor, Rodney Hinds, gives his verdict on arguably the greatest Olympic Games of all time

IN POSITION: Rodney Hinds

Beverly Lindsay Garry Peal Sir Albert Bore Joan ‘LJ’ Hunter Zena Wooldridge

AUGUST 23-29, 2012 | 27Voice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplementVoice London 2012 souvenir supplement

The Empire Strikes Back!

‘Lightning’ Bolt could quit now as a legend

Team GB make it happy and glorious in the Olympic Stadium

Athletics still needs Bolt but the sprint king does not need athletics

By Rodney Hinds and Ben Lettman

THE MOST stunning hour in the history of British athletics took place on the night of August 4. A trio of

Team GB stars took stunning advantage of home support.

The hosts had one of their best Games in terms of their fi nal medal tally and their success has been borne out of fi rst class and vociferous crowd support in the Olympic Stadium. On what has been forever dubbed ‘Super Sat-urday,’ Sheffi eld heptathlete Ennis was crowned Olympic champion after completing the two-day competition in a new national record points tally of 6,955.

After winning heat four of the 800m – the fi nal discipline - in a time of two minutes, 8.65 seconds, an emotional Ennis collapsed to the ground in tears as she received a rap-turous reception from the Lon-don crowd.

The 26-year-old achieved personal bests in the 200m, javelin and a national record of 12.54 seconds in the 100m hurdles to deservedly claim gold.

Ennis is now one of Brit-ish athletics’ most illustrious competitors of all-time hav-ing previously won European indoor and outdoor crowns plus world indoor and outdoor titles.

The sandwich between En-nis’ and Mo Farah’s triumphs was Greg Rutherford who secured Great Britain’s 13th gold medal of the London 2012 Olympics by winning the long jump.

Rutherford’s fourth round leap of 8.31m was enough to take victory on a glorious night for Team GB.

The icing on the cake be-longed to long distance ace Farah who took 10,000m gold in the highly-charged Olympic Stadium.

The Somalia-born Team GB star won with a devastating last lap to kill off the spirit of his rivals. Farah beat Ameri-can and training partner Ga-len Rupp (silver) and Tariku Bekele (bronze) to the big prize.

Farah, the European title-holder over 5,000m, showed tenacity and guts to claim

the glory in front of a partisan home crowd to record a time of 27:30.42.

No one will begrudge the Briton his moment of glory. In early 2011 he announced that he would leave long-time coach Alan Storey and relo-cate to Oregon in the United States to work with coach Al-berto Salazar.

The trio of home wins in front of a knowledgeable 80,000 audience will live long in the memory of those that were present. The triumvirate have all paid homage to the cracking atmosphere gener-ated inside one of the fi nest sporting arenas in the world.

In years to come the ques-tion will be; ‘were you there there when Team GB claimed three gold medals inside an hour?’

The Voice of Sport will be able to say ‘yes!’

By Ben Lettman

WITH SIX Olympic sprinting gold medals around his neck, what more is there for Usain Bolt to achieve in track and fi eld?

The Jamaican already holds the world records for the men’s 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay and has cap-tured fi ve world championship titles.

Still only 26, Bolt previously stated that retaining his sprint titles at London 2012 would secure his legacy as an ath-letics legend and having completed this task, it seems unlikely that Bolt will be at the top of his game at the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.

Bolt trains incredibly hard but having enhanced his ce-lebrity status due to his suc-cess at the Games means

that he does not need athlet-ics anymore to fi nancially se-cure his future.

London 2012 perhaps marked the last time that Bolt will race at an Olympics as well as compete in our na-tion’s capital. British tax laws mean that Bolt would barely make a profi t if he took to the starting blocks in the UK and 2009 was the last time he competed in England.

Rather than attempting to add to his already signifi cant medal haul it could be a sce-nario where Bolt may attempt a different distance or event altogether.

In 2007, Bolt set a personal best of 45.28 seconds in the 400m, a distance he occa-sionally ran as a junior and the Trelawny native has ex-pressed his desire to possibly compete in the long jump too.

And with younger Jamaican

sprinters Yohan Blake and Warren Weir snapping at his heels, changing career paths might be a good idea before his mantle of the fastest man on the planet is taken from him.

It would be a massive dis-appointment however if Bolt did decide to hang up his spikes altogether. He puts bums on seats. He wins in emphatic fashion. But, more importantly, Bolt is an enter-tainer who has that ‘it’ factor and athletics needs ‘the big man’, as BBC pundit Colin Jackson frequently called him during the Olympics.

Before Bolt burst on to the scene in 2008 athletics went through a torrid period where it was hard to trust the win-ners of races, as doping was rife in the sport.

Even if an elite athlete was clean, in most cases these

champions were very passive and uninteresting. But Bolt brings an aura of excitement to athletics.

It is not a stretch to stay that he revitalised track and fi eld with his dominant displays that are laced with charisma.

Personally speaking as an athletics enthusiast, it would be great to see Bolt compete in the 400m and attempt to break Michael Johnson’s 12-year-old world record and only compete in the one-lap in Rio. But due to the physi-cal demands of the 400m, this seems highly unlikely.

While Bolt’s future in ath-letics remains unclear, two things remains certain – track and fi eld will be a duller place without him and he will forever be remembered as an all-time great, even if he does not grace the track in Rio.

WINNING TRIO: (l to r) Farah, Ennis and Rutherford

TENACITY: Farah

MEDAL HAUL: Bolt


London 2012: Success for the Caribbean

QUALITY QUARTET: BahamasALL SMILES: Walcott

By Cheyenne Bunsie

THEY MAY not have been top of the overall medal table but the Lon-don 2012 Olympic

Games have certainly been a success for the Caribbean.

Not only have the islands managed to make their mark in the athletics, but the Olym-pics also signalled a branch-ing out into other events, per-haps shaking up the odds in Rio 2016.

The most anticipated spec-tacle of the Games was un-doubtedly the men’s 100m

fi nal, namely the rivalry be-tween Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.

Amidst whispers of doubt as a result of rumoured inju-ries, the infamous false start in Daegu and two defeats to Blake in the Olympic trials, Bolt was able to silence crit-ics with a new Olympic re-

cord of 9.63. The rivalry continued into

the 200m with Bolt aiming to become the fi rst athlete in history to defend back-to-back Olympic titles. In a race that featured new kid on the block Warren Weir, Jamaica took hysteria to new heights with a clean sweep of the medals.

Jamaica cemented its reputation as a dominant force in world athletics with the men’s 4x100m relay. A dream team of Nester Carter, Michael Frater and Blake and Bolt outclassed the entire fi eld and set a new world record of 36.84.

CELEBRATIONThe country’s women

also showed up, with Shel-ley Ann Fraser-Pryce tak-ing gold in the women’s 100m fi nal and Veronica Campbell-Brown claim-ing bronze. Fraser-Pryce also managed silver in the 200m. The relay team took silver in the 4x100m and bronze in the 4x400m.

Grenada crowned a new king with Kirani James taking gold in the men’s 400m, Dominican Re-public’s Luguelin Santos took silver, and Trinidad-ian Lalonde James taking bronze.

The twin islands also had

more cause for celebration after two more bronze med-als were collected in both the 4x400m relay and 4x100m relay, before 19-year-old Ke-shorn Walcott won a surprise gold medal in the javelin.

The Bahamas also stormed to a glorious victory in the men’s 4x400m relay, beating the Americans into silver. The team consisting of Chris Brown, Demetrius Pin-der, Michael Mathieu and Ra-mon Miller set a national re-cord in winning the country’s only medal of the Games.

The Dominican Repub-

lic struck gold in the men’s 400m hurdles fi nal with an emotional victory for 34-year old Felix Sanchez. Javier Culson of Puerto Rico took bronze. Looking ahead to Rio 2016 it appears the future is bright and not just in track. Cuba exhibited the most dominance outside of athlet-ics with two gold, one cour-tesy of 18-year-old Robeisy Ramirez, and two bronze medals in the boxing, a gold and two silver in judo, a gold and bronze in wrestling, a weightlifting bronze and a shooting gold.

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By John Portch

THE GOLDEN exploits of Jessica Ennis and Sanya Richards-Ross highlighted Jamaica’s rich emigrant history

ahead of the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence.

Olympic heptathlon cham-pion Ennis, whose father Vinny left Jamaica at 13-years-old, and the Kingston-born 400m Olympic champion Richards-Ross may compete under the British and American fl ags re-spectively but each has roots on the same small island as fellow Olympic champions Us-ain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

The list of second-genera-tion Jamaicans and expatri-ates who have won gold med-als competing for other nations includes the likes of Linford Christie, Donovan Bailey and Fiona May.

Ennis’ Canadian rival Jes-sica Zelinka joked that being in London was like “living in a Jessica Ennis theme park.” Her combination of beauty, modesty and talent long saw her labelled the face of the London Olympics.

Yet the diminutive athlete never wilted under the patri-

otic pressure and she even posted a personal best 12.54 seconds in the 100m hurdles on day one of the heptathlon and fell only briefl y into second place during two days worth of competition.

Glorious images of the 800m victory that confi rmed her gold cemented Ennis’ status as a national treasure. She clocked 6,955 points in London, the fi fth highest total in heptathlon history.

RECLAIMINGLater that night it was clear

things had gone up a notch when she was smuggled out the back of Team GB House at the Olympic Village with her tracksuit pulled over her head. Britain’s other medallists de-parted through the front door It was a new experience for the 26-year-old, who has long been noted for her normality in the face of her growing fame.

She lives in Sheffi eld with her fi ancé, construction man-ager Andy Hill, whom she met at school. The couple are set to wed next year and were pic-tured walking their black Lab-rador Myla just days before the start of the Games.

Ennis has been reported to be earning £1million per year for her various endorse-

ments but the added lustre of Olympic gold will see that shoot up to £5million.

However, she will be more concerned with using her victory as a starting point for reclaiming her world titles and smashing that 7,000-point bar-rier. She dominated her rivals, including defending Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska and Tatyana Chernova, who took Ennis’ outdoor world title.

Ennis’ broad appeal will doubtless inspire young Brit-ish girls to follow in her wake, not least Katarina Johnson-Thompson. The 19-year-old competed in London and is al-ready being tipped as the ‘new Ennis’.

For now, though, the new Olympic champion has more basic aims: “I’m defi nitely go-

ing to relax, eat lots of rubbish food, have a few glasses of wine and enjoy this moment for as long as possible.”

EXORCISED

Richards-Ross banished frustrating memories of her 400m third-place in Beijing to take 400m gold, edging out Britain’s defending Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu

on Sunday. It is another remarkable

chapter in the Jamaican-American’s career. She was diagnosed with Behcets Syn-drome in 2007. This chronic illness causes infl ammation of the blood vessels and can lead to skin problems, arthritis and meningitis. It can also affect memory speech and move-ment. Memories of her poor

fi nish in 2008 were exorcised as she swept ahead of the fi eld in a time of 49.55 seconds.

“I just kept saying, ‘You can do this, you can do this,’” she later commented. “I just dug really deep and I’m very hap-py.”

Jamaicans everywhere can allow themselves a hint of pride at the achievements of these fi ne champions.

By Trudy Simpson

WHEN THE Olympics ended on August 12, Africans were well represented on the medal table and they are expecting that this strong presence will spur economic opportunities for the continent.

Among the continent’s

champions were Kenyan Da-vid Rudisha who set a world record while winning 800m gold and Uganda’s fi rst gold medallist since 1972, men’s marathon winner Stephen Kip-rotich.

In a country famous for its male athletes, Ethiopian women also shone. Tirunesh Dibaba won 10,000m gold; Tiki Gelena, women’s mara-thon gold and Meseret Defar 5,000m gold.

Women such as Kenya’s Vivian Jepkemoi Cheruiyot did well while British Africans An-thony Joshua and Mo Farah also struck gold.

SUCCESSES

African countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia brought trade and investment dele-

gates alongside athletes. Fol-lowing London 2012, many are now are confi dent they will see some post-Olympic economic boost for their countries.

Ethiopian Ambassador, Ber-hanu Kebede, said: “Ethiopia’s successes at the London 2012 Olympics have put Ethiopia on the map and accentuated our country’s many positive sides. This has given us an opportu-nity to highlight the benefi ts of

investing in Ethiopia.” He added: “Investors have

become aware, many for the fi rst time, of Ethiopia’s double digit growth rate and rapid de-velopment. The presence of Olympic heroes, past and pre-sent, helped us to maximise this positive impact.”

“People tell me they want to go to Africa,” he said.

“For the fi rst time Ethiopia participated in swimming and there are some investors who want to invest in swimming in Ethiopia so this thing attracts investment and good feeling for these countries.”

John Small, chief executive of business network Eastern African Association, added: “The whole atmosphere of the Olympic Games helps to strengthen bonds and links between the UK and their countries. I think there is enor-

mous amount of goodwill but I think it is diffi cult to say specifi -cally what would come out of it.”

In the UK, Ethiopian Yalew Kebede watched and celebrat-ed.

“The Olympics is a very spe-cial thing for Africa, especially athletics. It is a refl ection of the strength of the African people,” explained Kebede, who is the secretary of the UK-based Ethi-opian Consensus Forum said.

SPIRITSHe said seeing champions,

including Ethiopia’s women, were “an inspiration for dias-pora kids here”.

Unlike the stereotypical views of Africa, he emphasised that “when diaspora Africans see the strength, the stamina, this is also a refl ection of Africa in terms of economic develop-ment and future development activities. It inspires you.”

“I am very proud of those boys and girls because they tried,” said Colin Firth, co-creator of community website, Kenyan UK.

He said some Kenyans are disappointed with the low Ken-yan medal haul unlike Beijing in 2008.

But their spirits were kept high by athletes such as Rudisha. “It was amazing. It deleted all the bad memories

(and) motivated us. Overall I think they did well. It has now motivated us because we are bidding to host the Olympics in 2024.” He says more athletes will be motivated, especially in non-traditional areas such as swimming.

“There will be talks of more funding now,” Firth said.

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chapter in the Jamaican-American’s

career ”

“An inspiration

for diaspora

kids here ”

ROOTS: Ennis

CHAMPION: Dibaba

BORN IN KINGSTON: Richards-Ross

LEADING THE WAY: Rudisha

Caribbean nations providing top class athletes for others

Continent’s Olympians shine at London Games

African pride


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How the famous four got on...

By Ben Lettman

PRIOR TO the Olympic Games taking place the Voice of Sport highlighted four Team GB track and fi eld competitors who we

thought would excel inside the Olympic Stadium.

Those athletes were heptathlete Jessica Ennis, long distance run-ner Mo Farah, triple jumper Phillips Idowu and 400m sprinter Christine Ohuruogu.

Due to their success in previous championships, there were high hopes that the quartet would live up to their billing at London 2012.

And in three out of the four cases, they did.

With the heptathlon taking place

on August 3, which was the opening day of the athletics, Ennis was up fi rst and did not disappoint.

In the fi rst of seven disciplines dur-ing the two-day event, the 26-year-old Sheffi eld native ran an outstand-ing national record of 12.54 seconds in the 100m hurdles.

Ennis went on to set two more per-sonal bests in the 200m (22.83 seconds) and javelin (47.49m) en route to ex-tending the hep-tathlon national record to 6,955 points.

Although Ennis was the fi rst of our chosen

four in action, it was Farah who was the fi rst to succeed.

If there was a roof on top of the Olympic Stadium it would have well and truly been blown off due to amount of cheers the European

record holder received from spectators who

were willing him on to victory in the

10,000m.With a fi nal

lap of 53.48 seconds, there were ecstatic scenes as Far-ah, 29, crossed

the fi nish line fi rst in a time of

27 minutes 30.42 seconds.

Exactly a week later,

Farah once again took on the world’s best long distance runners, this time in the 5,000m. In what was a tactical battle, Farah took the lead with four laps remaining and managed to stay in lane one for the rest of the race, fending off any attacks from his ri-vals who had to run around him if they wanted to take gold.

A frantic fi nal lap of 52.94 seconds saw the Somalia-born runner claim the win in 13 minutes, 41.66 sec-onds.

Going into the Games, Ohuruogu was the only British athlete who was a defending champion and the 28-year-old did not disappoint. Al-though the Newham, east London resident could not replicate her per-formance from Beijing 2008, Ohu-ruogu took a silver medal behind perennial adversary Sanya Rich-

ards-Ross in 49.70 seconds, her fastest time in four years. Ohuruogu dramatically closed down Richards-Ross in the fi nal 100m but the Ameri-can maintained her position.

An Olympic silver medallist from four years ago, a lot was expected from former world and European champion Idowu. However, the 33-year-old of Nigerian descent was clearly not fully fi t entering the Games. Idowu, from Hackney, east London, barely competed during the season and could only muster 16.53m, over a metre short of his personal best. That distance was not enough for Idowu to make the fi nal in what was the only negative from our fantastic four. The Olympic Games was a huge success in general and Ennis, Farah and Ohuruogu more than played their part.


were willing him on were willing him on to victory in the

10,000m.

lap of 53.48 lap of 53.48 seconds, there were ecstatic scenes as Far-ah, 29, crossed




ing national record of 12.54 seconds in the 100m

Ennis went on to set two more per-sonal bests in the 200m (22.83 seconds) and javelin (47.49m) en route to ex-tending the hep-tathlon national record to 6,955


to amount of cheers the European to amount of cheers the European ing national record of 12.54 seconds in the 100m

Ennis went on to set two more per-sonal bests in

tathlon national record to 6,955



were willing him on were willing him on to victory in the to victory in the

10,000m.

lap of 53.48 lap of 53.48 seconds, there were ecstatic scenes as Far-ah, 29, crossed




from spectators who were willing him on

to victory in the to victory in the Ennis went on to set two more per-

fi rst in a time of 27 minutes 30.42

Although Ennis was

The Voice of Sport

reviews just how

our ones to watch

fared at London

2012

DOUBLE TRIUMPH: FarahQUEEN OF THE TRACK: Ennis BAD EXPERIENCE: Idowu EMOTIONAL: Ohuruogu


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ExCel-ling in the ring

AN OLYMPIC gold medal is the biggest prize attainable in amateur boxing and usually sets the ball

rolling for a lucrative career in the professional ranks.

And having earned three golds, a silver and a bronze medal at the ExCel Arena at London 2012, Team GB’s box-ers could easily cash in on their resounding success.

But this might not necessarily be the wisest move. Let us start off with analysing the pros-pects for Team GB’s smallest fi ghter, Leeds’ Nicola Adams.

The 29-year-old fl yweight completely outboxed three-time world champion Ren Cancan on her way to a his-toric 16-7 points victory. Beat-ing the Chinese meant that Adams became the fi rst ever female to win gold at the Olympic Games.

So should Adams turn pro-fessional I hear you say? Not

really, to be honest. And there is a simple reason as to why. Women’s professional boxing is not taken as seriously as the men’s version.

AMATEURWhile Adams is marketable

due to her humble attitude and in-ring achievements, the cali-bre of opposition is probably fi ercer in the amateur ranks and being an Olympic gold med-

allist in the amateur system as a woman arguably holds more prestige than holding a world title as a professional. Adams should defi nitely stay amateur and focus on retaining her title at the 2016 Games in Brazil.

Now time for our largest pugilist; the 6’, 6” super-heav-yweight Anthony Joshua. The 22-year-old of Nigerian heritage narrowly defeated the former world and Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle on count back to claim gold for Great Britain.

Several promoters from vari-ous locations have announced an interest in signing Joshua to a professional contract but the north Londoner has stated that he wants to become a world champion before turning pro. And this is a wise move.

With less than 50 fi ghts un-der his belt, Joshua is a relative novice to the sport and needs more time to nurture his un-doubted talent. If Joshua takes

off the vest and head guard too soon he could miss out on valu-able lessons that only amateur boxing provides. Staying an amateur until Rio, however, re-mains unlikely.

KNOWLEDGEMiddleweight Anthony Ogo-

go secured a bronze medal at the Games and it is the perfect time for the Lowestoft, Suffolk fi ghter to turn professional.

Ogogo, 23, was involved in some toe-to-toe wars at the Ex-Cel Arena, such as his bruising encounter against world cham-pion Evhen Khytrov, who he de-feated on count back.

A former youth Olympic Games gold medallist, Ogogo has been an elite amateur for close to 10 years and is equipped with vast knowledge inside the square circle that will keep him in good stead in the future, whether he turns profes-sional or not.

“Team GB’s boxers could easily

cash in on their

resounding success ”

What’s next for our medal- winning Olympic boxers? GOLDEN BOY: Joshua

IN-RING ACHIEVEMENTS: Adams

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