It’s finally here, the day I go to my first Olympic event! The round 16 welterweight and flyweight category for boxing. CT and Alex were both hyped to see the two American fighters who were competing. Their names were Errol Spence Jr – 7 times USA national champion and Rau’Shee Wareen.
I hadn’t realised that there was actually a British fighter competing too, but more on that later!
Once we arrived at Edexel, our first point of call was to look for tickets to buy for the coming week. We had heard rumours that the box offices at venues sold on tickets for any unused or recyclable seats where people had either not turned up, or left early. The IOC especially wanted to fill the seats that were in camera shot for obvious reasons, but unfortunately, at the time there were none available for any events at the Edexel. We did bump into another American who had a similar idea to us. He had previously been to every Olympics games for the past 30 years and told us he had had no problems getting tickets on the day at any other games. He had used his usual ploy of wearing a Statue Of Liberty hat accompanied by an A4 size sign with ‘I need tickets’scribbled on the front. He had just hung outside of events and pestered (within reason) people for a spare ticket. This was fine for him of course, because he only needed one, but the chances of getting three tickets to other events for ourselves were pretty unlikely. He had managed to get into the second half of the USA vs Tunisia for just £5 using the ‘recycle’ tickets system. A system where tickets become available once an event has started due to someone leaving. This is traceable as you have to scan your ticket as you leave, and as soon as that happens that person’s seat becomes available for recycling. Since the games started in London the American had managed to get into an event almost every day. This was pretty impressive, Alex and CT and I thought about doing it for a few events like basketball, athletics and the next round of boxing (particularly if our guys got through).
we even got to try on the gloves and head guard.
The seats we’d been allocated were pretty incredible, they were in the lower section, almost ringside. When we went to sit down we found that one of our seats was missing. We had tickets to row 10, seat number 111, 112, 113, we found 111 with no problem but 112 and 113 didn’t actually exist. Luckily there were 2012 workers nearby who told us we were now entitled to an upgrade! So we managed to go from row 10 to row 4, this was our view.
It was around this time, just when the first bout was about to be announced that I got an email from Renaldo Lawrence, son of GB basketball player Andrew Lawrence, telling me he was now available to sort out the interview I had been planning all week. He wanted to meet tomorrow, the only day in the week I won’t be in London due to my cousin’s wedding. This put me in a tight spot as I didn’t want to have to keep bothering him with emails, so I thought CT and Alex might want to do the interview for me if I send them the information. I’ve seen the quality of their work and thought this would be a great opportunity to utilise their skill to benefit the both of us. Luckily they didn’t have anything planned for that evening so it is just a matter of me emailing them my questions and hoping Renaldo doesn’t mind meeting with someone else for this first stage of the interview. You’ll find it on here tomorrow I hope! So anyway, back to the boxing, the BBC had created a video on the ins and outs of boxing for those of the crowd not familiar with the sport. They then proceeded to go through all the British medal hopefuls and past greats.
And after half an hour, with the seats filling up and noise building – it was time for the first bout. The bout of USA flyweight Rau’Shee Wareen. This was one of the most tightly contested fights of the evening, resulting in an unfortunate loss for the American by one single point. Coming out strong he won the first round 9-6, then narrowly lost the later two 7-5 and 6-4.
“SEEEEEEELLLLBBBBBYYYYYYY” the crowd repeated over and over. I was only in the crowd and my adrenaline was pumping like I was about to step in the ring myself. I felt great sense of pride as the GB fans created a truly incredible atmosphere which I was sure helped the young boxers confidence. Sebly won three straight rounds to advance into the next round.
Next up was Eroll Spence Jnr in what was inevitably the fight that would make the headlines. Eroll, USA’s best chance of getting on the podium in boxing made his way into the ring to face Indian fighter Krishan Vikas. With relatively few Americans in the house, India’s supporters drowned out the “USA! USA!” chants coming from small patches in the crowd. Obviously I had CT and Alex shouting in my ear the whole time, they were both getting hyped as punch after punch connected with the side of Vikas' face. Even then there was an Indian couple behind us giving them a run for their money with their chanting, but it was all in good fun. Spence had fought well for two rounds, with the scores relatively close, this was the decider, where it was time to cash in on those four years of hard training. Spence Jr came out with furious aggressiveness landing combos left right and centre. Even when Vikas grabbed him to try and slow him down you could see Spence attacking the body, trying to earn those valuable points. 10 seconds left. Spence approached with a left jab, then again, weaved then planted a huge right hook on Vikas's jaw. That was it. Game over. I thought it, CT and Alex thought it, even the Indian fans behind us quietened down. Both fighters touched gloves then slowly walked over to the back of the ring where the ref awaited the decision. “And now, the winner of the 59kg bout is…” 
The ref flung Spence’s hand into the air as Americans cheered and applauded. “In the Red corner, India’s Krishan Vikas!” No… surely that can’t be right? But sure enough the ref, who looked slightly confused himself, brought Spence’s hand back down and lifted Krishan Vikas' arm into the air. Shock and anger filled the arena, it was a controversial decision to say the least. Errol's face went cold, he looked round to his coaches in confusion, then to the ref. Even Vikas looked dumfounded. As they left the ring you see could how emotional Errol had become as he tried to hide the fact he was crying.
When the bouts had finished and we made our way back to the station where we bumped into Errol Spence Jr's Mum and Dad, who CJ and Alex had met previously in Dallas. The Ball State students had arranged many of their future interviews the year before the Olympics and a lot of them, I was told, came from a media day in Dallas. Obviously, I was itching to get an interview. To get a reaction from the fighter's parents would have been really valuable, but after discussing it with CT I decided against it. His mother was clearly upset, although she wouldn't show it and his father did not look in the mood to chat. CT advised me that in situations like this one, it is best just to leave it for another day - which would prove to be very sound advice...
Errol’s coach was also there and did not hide his disbelief. He was annoyed he had not been able to secure tickets for himself for the bout and so had to watching it on the television in the pub. Once the referee hoisted Errol’s arm into the air, he went outside to ring Errol's parents and congratulate them. It wasn’t until he spoke to Errol’s father that he heard about the controversial loss. He repeated and repeated his disbelief and he wasn't alone. Team USA had offically filed an appeal for the bout after what they felt was an inaccurate result.
Huffington Post has a great article on the details of the appeal which you can find here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/04/olympic-boxing-errol-spence-decision_n_1741876.html
If you were following the fight, you'll know that later that evening the appeal was approved and Errol went into the quarter finals to face Russia's Andrey Zamkovoy.
He lost the first round 3-4, the second round was scored 4-5 in favour of the Russian, and the final round also went in Zamkovoy's favor 4-7. The final score was 11-16.
@ErrolSpenceJr tweeted: Came up short tonight good fight! thanks everybody for the love n support #GODIsGreat #TeamUSA time too start my pro career
What a story to stumble accross at my first ever Olympic event.
It has taken me a while to get to the stage where I felt happy to publish this blog, working with BSU students on content whilst at the games left me with little time to complete my own work. But there will be much more to come, so if you enjoyed this post please subscribe!
You can also find more of my stories as well as the other students I worked with about boxing and other Olympic sports on www.bsuatthegames.com
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