The atrocious attacks at the Boston Marathon this week have cast a shadow over the usually jubilant build-up at the Virgin London Marathon.

The two fatal explosions at the Boston Marathon that tragically killed three people and injured nearly 200 were felt hard by London. Many asked, given the nature of the attacks, if this year's London Marathon across the streets of the capital should even take place.

But at the headquarters of the Marathon London at The Tower Hotel business has continued as usual, be it in a more subdued fashion than normal.

Rather than abandon this year's race, organisers have correctly decided that the most fitting tribute to Boston is to go ahead with the event to show that they will not let the terrible bombings get the better of them.

And quietly, without any fanfare, there have been some touching gestures from organisers towards the people of Boston.

The London Marathon have announced that they will donate £2 ($3/€2.3) for every finisher in Sunday's race to The One Fund Boston - set up to raise money for victims of the explosions there earlier this week.

The race organisers estimate that around 35,500 people will cross the line on Sunday; meaning at least £70,000 ($107,000?€82,000) is likely to be raised for the fund.

The London Marathon has also sent a link to the Boston fundraising page to all its runners, encouraging them to make their own donations.

"Everyone connected with the London Marathon was shocked by the terrible events in Boston, and we are keen to show our support to the victims' families and our friends in the running community there," explained London Marathon race director Hugh Brasher.

"As soon as we heard about The One Fund Boston we decided to make a donation. Our pledge to give £2 for every finisher at the 2013 Virgin London Marathon seemed an appropriate and fitting way to make our contribution."

The gesture has not gone unnoticed in Boston.

"It was the City of Boston that was attacked this week, and we are deeply gratified that the citizens of Boston are receiving so many displays of support," said Boston Marathon race director Tom Grilk.

"We remember the Star Spangled Banner being played at the Changing of the Guard after 9/11.

"We will remember what the runners in London and the organisers of the Virgin London Marathon are doing on Sunday. On behalf of everyone, thank you."

Additional tributes include plans for a period of silence lasting 30 seconds prior to the start of the elite men's race and mass start at this Sunday.

And the Virgin London Marathon runners themselves have been just as dignified in their tributes.

"We would all like to express our condolences to those who lost loved ones in Boston," said the defending men's champion and London 2012 Olympic bronze medallist Wilson Kipsang.

"They are in mourning right now and we know they are going through a hard time.

"This was an athletics event, just a race, so we all feel for them.

"But we will run [in London] feeling free.

"We can see that security matters are in place here and will race feeling completely safe."

Mo Farah, the man who should be making all the headlines as he prepares to run half the London Marathon this week, was equally dignified.

"We're going to support all the people there," said Britain's double Olympic champion.

"The people in Boston would want us to keep going. London will do a great job, just as we did at the Olympics."

These are all little gestures from London, but worthy of note as the whole world sends its thoughts and prayers to Boston as it begins to rebuild.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.

Boxing has never been short on bands of brothers, from the Coopers to the Klitschkos. Amir Khan's younger sibling Haroon is the latest to forge a family link with the fight game, though not everyone in the Khan clan is happy about it.

The 21-year-old recalls how his mother Falak was so distressed at the ringside after witnessing Amir being shockingly KO'd in 54 seconds by Colombian Breidis Prescott in his 19th pro fight that she collapsed and had to be given oxygen.

The next day she asked Haroon to hand her his own amateur boxing kit. "I said 'Thanks mum,' thinking she was going to wash it. But she binned it and told me: 'You're not boxing any more'."

It was only after Amir and their father Shah pleaded with her that she reluctantly relented. "She said I could carry on – but only if I promised to stay amateur."

It is a promise he has been unable to keep, making his professional debut on the undercard of his big brother's 12 round bout against Mexican Julio Diaz at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield on Saturday week.

His mother is far from happy at the prospect, especially following the death last week of the boxer Michael Norgrove, the sport's first fatality here in 18 years. "Obviously she is worried, just as I was when I knew I had to break the news about turning pro. She was abroad when I made my mind up and I kept putting off telling her. But in the end my dad insisted I make the call.


"When I told her she pleaded with me and said: 'You don't need to be a boxer. We've already got one in the family'." He had recently done a photo shoot for Selfridges. So she begged him: "Stick to modelling."

"I admit I was in two minds but boxing won. Now, after Michael Norgrove's death she keeps asking me: 'Are you sure you've made the right choice?' I can understand why she doesn't like seeing her sons get hit. This is a dangerous business but like Amir I know the risks.

"I told her 'look what Amir's achieved, if he can do it, so can I. Don't worry, one day you will be as proud of me as you are of him.'

One of the questions I asked Shah Khan after Amir won the 2004 Olympic lightweight boxing silver in Athens was: "Are there any more at home like him?" "Actually yes," he replied. "And he might even be better than Amir one day."

It is a prediction with which Amir himself concurs. "Haroon certainly has the potential. As kids we used to scrap with each other in our front room and he was quite a handful. He has tremendous talent. It just needs to be harnessed and I've told him he has to be totally dedicated, which hasn't always been the case. No messing. This is the hurt business and it's for real."


Once tagged "Baby Khan" he is Amir's little brother in every sense, fighting at super-flyweight (8st 3lb), some two stones lighter, three inches shorter and five years younger than the former world light-welter champion.

He decided to make the switch to the pro ranks – where he will be promoted by his brother's organisation – after the frustrations of an impressive amateur career in which he boxed for England but when overlooked for the Olympic squad in favour of Andrew Selby won a Commonwealth Games flyweight bronze medal representing Pakistan, his father's birthplace – beating world-ranked Selby in the quarterfinals. A shoulder injury robbed him of the chance of representing Pakistan at London 2012.

He had been trained as an amateur by Amir's old Bury club coach Mick Jelley, who says: "Whether he makes it is up to him. He has everything going for him but sometimes he has wanted to play the good life and the good life doesn't work. If he applies himself he'll smash his way through, there'll be no stopping him. The thing is, he's become a man now."

Style wise Haroon, or Harry as he is known, is different to Amir, more of a box-fighter in the Ricky Hatton mould. "An exciting little bugger," says Jelley.

At Jelley's gym in the 80-year-old club whose walls are festooned with cuttings of Amir's achievements, Haroon had started boxing as a precocious nine-year-old going along to watch his brother. He had had his first bout on his eleventh birthday.


Jelley, a retired printer who has devoted his life to the amateur sport, says Haroon soon found there were good things and bad things about being Amir's brother. "Sometimes it's not that he's been beaten but absolutely ripped off after winning hands down. It can be very upsetting. That sort of thing is one of the troubles with amateur boxing. The judging can be so dodgy."

The Khans believe Haroon was the victim of some prejudiced judging, in several of his early bouts, notably soon after Amir turned professional when there was considerable resentment in Amateur Boxing Association of England (ABAE) circles.

"It started a week after Amir turned pro when I beat a kid really comfortably but didn't get the decision," Haroon says. "I was upset about that but I let it pass. I would have liked to emulate Amir and win an Olympic medal but I think my style is better suited to the pro game."

He is an engaging and cheeky young chappy, not short of confidence or chutzpah.

Somewhat surprisingly he is now being schooled in Salford by Oliver Harrison, the first of three trainers fired by Amir. The split was acrimonious but Haroon says: "They still speak and it was Amir who suggested him because he is a great coach to young fighters."

Mrs Khan will not be in Sheffield to see his pro debut against 20-year-old Bulgarian Stefan Slavchev. She has not watched either of her sons fight since that fateful night in Manchester four years ago. Instead, she stays at home literally praying for their safe return.

Haroon acknowledges that the time has come, quite literally, to start making a fist of it.

"Amir has taught me a lot, not only about boxing, but about life. But I won't be so gung-ho as he was. One thing I've learned is that if you go down, don't get up and start trading punches. Stay on the back foot.

"Amir learned from that bad experience and went on to become a world champion. And I'm going to be one too, whatever it takes."

Just don't tell mum.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

Footage of the first explosion at the Boston Marathon, recorded by a reporter doing a piece at the finish line, evokes the same sense of shock and rushing realisation as similar recordings made when the bomb went off at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The waves of this horror flow out. They reach us, distant observers. They reach other imminent sporting gatherings, such as Sunday's Virgin London Marathon.

Today, in the wake of the attack in Boylston Street which cynically disfigured an event composed of some of the purest and best of human motivations, organisers of the London race reiterated their determination that their show would go on as planned.

"We have reviewed and will continue to review our security arrangements with the Metropolitan Police and other authorities," said an official statement.

Nick Bitel, the London Marathon chief executive, added: "We want to reassure our runners, spectators, volunteers and everyone connected with the event that we are doing everything to ensure their safety and that the Virgin London Marathon 2013 will be an outstanding success."

As the reporter at the finish line, who had run the Boston Marathon three times himself, commented, the usual feeling to be had there for competitors was one of having completed a home run at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

The tide of pictures and footage on social media and news outlets now testifies to the different emotions which predominated in the minutes after those wickedly timed explosions.

Of course, there are wickedly timed explosions going on all around the world. Pain is pain, grief is grief. But there is something very awful about the sudden juxtaposition of something so evil with something so good.

A female runner reacts with bewilderment in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing

As the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) President Lamine Diack pointed out, "what makes this incident so vile and its planning so incomprehensible is that marathons the world over are about selfless acts of human generosity. Millions of dollars are raised for charity every year by participants in road races. The events themselves are administered by thousands of volunteers."

A statement issued by Nova International, organisers of the Bupa Great Run Series, put it like this:

"Mass participation running events are celebrations of community spirit and endeavour and for this horrific, unprecedented incident to occur is a tragedy."

The scene at the finish of the Boston Marathon after the double bomb blast

The outrage is clearly expressed - but, sadly, this was not an unprecedented incident.

On April 6, 2008, a suicide bomber detonated a device at the start of a Sri Lankan marathon in Waliweriaya, killing at least 15 people, including the Highway Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. The attack, which was blamed on the rebel group the Tamil Tigers group, also injured almost 100 people.

On May 1, 2002 a car bomb exploded near the Real Madrid stadium hours before the home side were due to play Barcelona in the European Champions Leagues semi-final. A second car bomb exploded a half hour later about a mile away. The Basque separatist group ETA took responsibility for the attack, which injured 17 people.

In 2010, football followers in Kampala, Uganda were the target of bomb  blasts while they watched TV screenings of the World Cup final between Spain and the Netherlands. At least three bombs exploded on two sites - a large sports field, and a restaurant - and more than 50 people were reported killed.

The Washington Post reported that militant Somali group al-Shabab, linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The Atlanta Olympic bomb went off at 1:20am on July 27, 1996 in Centennial Olympic Park, killing two people and injuring more than a 100 others.

Eric Rudolph, a former explosives expert for the United States Army, confessed to placing the bomb in front of a video screen in the park. He called in to 911 twice before the bomb was scheduled to go off to warn officials about the bomb, according to an interview in Sports Illustrated.

The best known footage of this incident featured an interview by ARD TV Germany taking place with US swimmer Janet Evans, whose long Olympic career was being celebrated at the Swatch Pavilion within the Park.

The sound of the explosion, a breaking glass, breaks in upon the conversation, and the swimmer breaks away towards the camera with a look of distress on her face as others peer out of the window to see what has happened.

A memorial gathering at the site where spectator Alice Hawthorne was killed by the bomb which went off in Centennial Park at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics

By James Crook

"This is an historic day" exclaimed International Baseball Federation President Riccardo Fraccari, as a jam-packed press conference in Tokyo to witness the birth of the organisation he will take co-Presidency of; the World Baseball Softball Confederation.

"Our vision is to give every boy and girl in the world a chance to play baseball and softball and to inspire them to take up the sport through the Olympic Games," said the other man sharing the helm; Don Porter, International Softball Federation (ISF) President, as the onlooking delegates and press lapped up the details of the brand spanking new campaign.

The WSBC campaign for the sport's re-election to the Olympic sports programme for 2020 onwards certainly gleams on the exterior; 65 million players worldwide, fanatical fan-bases in multiple countries, an ever expanding social media presence and an incredible ability to pull in commercial sponsorship.

The lavish Congress presented by Japanese gaming giants Konami is something that not many sports would have had the resources to host, but baseball's massive global pull opens a world of opportunity with commercial sponsorship; something that the likes of football and basketball can only really compete with.

IBAF President Riccardo Fraccari and ISF President Don Porter unveiled the campaign and officially announced the formation of the WBSC, which they will both Co-President

And with Nippon Professional Baseball - Japan's elite league - also helping host the event, there is plenty of clout behind this campaign, and the WBSC certainly aren't afraid to shout about it.

The consolidation of the two Federations is very much a push for global domination for the sports, and there is a genuine belief that it's a possibility that baseball and softball will be embraced by nations across the planet; ambition which is nicely encapsulated by the campaign motto, "Swing for the Fences".

If the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board are looking for the most marketable addition to the programme, the best-watched and the one that undoubtedly has the most resources at its disposal when they are given presentations from each of the eight bidding sports in St Petersburg in May, baseball and softball are shoe-ins for the recommendation, and the prospect of baseball and softball possibly making their return to the Games in one of the sport's key markets - Japan, should Tokyo win the rights to host the 2020 Olympics - is a tantalising notion that would have fans, sponsors and officials drooling.

But who really knows what the IOC are looking for to fill the likely singular void that will need to be filled to confirm the completed sports programme for 2020, other than the members themselves?

If it was the case that the campaign from the city or sport in the strongest position at this moment was given the nod ahead of their rivals, you'd find it tough to see past Tokyo hosting the 2020 Games with baseball and softball taking their place on the sports programme, in my opinion.

Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league boasts some of the most fanatical fans in the world

"We like to stress that Tokyo 2020 is a safe pair of hands" said Tokyo 2020 chief executive Masato Mizuno somewhat aptly back in January when delegates delivered a press conference in London following their delivery of their Bid Book to the IOC.

And perhaps the newlywed softball and baseball share this trait with the Japanese capital's bid - due to the fact they are already so established in so many nations around the globe - to host its first Games since 1964; but in actuality, is being "safe" such a positive image to have?

In the same way that Istanbul offers a unique opportunity to stage the Games across two continents in one of the world's emerging markets, or the way that Madrid have vowed to use the Games to drag themselves out of their economic turmoil, the perhaps lesser-known bidding sports like wushu, wakeboarding and climbing give the opportunity to develop some of these somewhat niche sports into world-renowned sports; they can all offer something truly different, and could use the Games to propel themselves into the limelight.

Will there be a desire to hand an opportunity to one of the underdogs in these races in order to create true legacies for these cities and sports that are searching for a launch-pad rather than side with the "safe" options that already have such massive global reputations?

It's obvious that the desire to be back in the Games burned strong in the hearts of the delegates in Tokyo  after the controversial decision to oust the sports from the programme following Beijing 2008, similarly to the way in which Tokyo 2020 are determined that their bid- which has long been installed as the British bookmakers favourites to win the rights to host the Games - will not go the same way as their 2016 bid, which fell at the second to last hurdle to Madrid and eventual winners Rio de Janeiro.

Both Tokyo 2020 and baseball-softball are striving to go further and the hunger and desire is undoubtedly there from both parties, but whether their tags as the old faithful will in fact have a detrimental effect on their chances remains to be seen.

James Crook is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here. 

Prime Minister David Cameron seemingly made it very clear that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) was nowhere near of the same importance to him following the conclusion of London 2012 on September 4 last year.

With the Paralympic Games almost at an end, the Prime Minister plucked Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt from the top of the DCMS and made him new Secretary of State for Health as "a reward" for helping London stage the one of the best Olympics and Paralympics in history.

Hunt was indeed the top-ranking Government official directly in charge of the London 2012, although there is no doubt that it was Olympics and Sports Minister Hugh Robertson who did far more to ensure the success of the Games.

Nevertheless, Hunt was one of the big winners in Cameron's September Cabinet reshuffle. It is no secret how close the pair are after the Prime Minister stood unashamedly behind the MP for South West Surrey when many were calling for Hunt to be axed in early 2012 following allegations of secret deals involving Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to ensure it was successful in its bid to take over BSkyB.

With Hunt promoted, in as the new Culture Secretary was Maria Miller.

Her full title: Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Minister for Women and Equality - the Olympics part that Hunt had noticeably dropped with London 2012 at end.

The MP for Basingstoke was previously Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and Minister for Disabled People at the Department for Work and Pensions and her appointment marked a significant promotion for a politician who had not been previously marked out as a potential successor to Hunt; and a politician not renowned for their sporting knowledge.

Cameron, it appears, wasn't interested enough in the DCMS post London 2012 to leave one of his chief lieutenants in place as Culture Secretary and more recently, the entire Department has been relocated from their prominent setting in Cockspur Street opposite Trafalgar Square to Parliament Street, where they have been shoved in with a number of other Government Departments.

But apparently his interest in creating a real legacy from London 2012 is as strong as ever.

No less than London 2012 and British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Sebastian Coe has been appointed as his Olympic and Paralympic legacy ambassador while, in a recent joint letter with Mayor of London Boris Johnson, he promised not to let the Games legacy die by avoiding the mistakes made by previous host cities.

Sport is doing its best to keep showing its own relevance post-London 2012, as I saw myself at Festival Wakeboard Park in Essex earlier this week where Sport England announced a major £24 million ($37 million/€28 million) investment boost for their successful Sportivate programme which aims to get young people between 14 to 25-year-olds more involved in sport.

The announcement came as the DCMS also unveiled their new "inspired by 2012" brand - a logo to be used by organisations connected to the events of 2012 such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games and the Diamond Jubilee.

It is hoped the logo will continue to harness and promote the huge amount of goodwill and enthusiasm generated last summer and Miller, who was in attendance in Essex, claimed that it showed that the London 2012 legacy for sport in the UK is not dying.

"We are determined to make that feeling of inspiration and enthusiasm last," Miller told me.

"One of the strengths of the 2012 legacy is that it means many different things to different people and there is a real legacy from the Games that is thriving. The number of people playing sport is on the rise, which is really good news. It's really important we keep the momentum going and help even more young people develop a sporting habit for life."

Next on Miller's sporting agenda is the rather crucial appointing of two new chairs for UK Sport and Sport England.

The announcement has been delayed for some time but it is finally set to come this month, with Britain's 11-time Paralympic wheelchair racing champion Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson set to replace Richard Lewis as Sport England chair - as first reported on insidethegames - and an unpredictable battle currently taking place to succeed Baroness Sue Campbell as the UK Sport supremo.

Miller told me that the delay is largely because "Getting the right people in place is of fundamental importance", and she is very right.

Not so long ago, the Government were set to merge the two organisations together and it was only following a long, heated protest, spearheaded by Campbell, that the rather bizarre plan was abandoned.

The two separate chairs will now be instrumental alongside Miller and Robertson at the DCMS in ensuring sport remains on the Government's top table as the warm London 2012 afterglow slowly fades away.

UK Sport bringing more major events to Britain will certainly serve as a welcoming reminder to all at the top of Government but it is the quartet of the Culture Secretary, the Sports Minister and the new UK Sport and Sport England chairs that must fight the hardest to ensure that the changing face of sport in these shores doesn't become unrecognisable from the one we witnessed beaming brightly last summer.

If they fail, sport - and the DCMS - faces the unwelcome prospect of going from its high-ranking London 2012 position back to being the toy department.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.  

The forthcoming derby match between Newcastle United and Sunderland at St James' Park has produced a moral conundrum. Lest any of the home fans should feel tempted to bait the new Sunderland manager Paolo di Canio by mimicking the straight-arm salute he notoriously gave to his old fans at Lazio - an action that has caused some debate in recent days - Northumbria Police have warned them that any such taunting will lead to arrests. Chief Superintendent Steve Neill insisted that such salutes were "not a joke".

But the thing is, if a fascist or Nazi salute is offered in mockery, doesn't that make it, effectively, an anti-fascist or anti-Nazi salute? And can that be offensive? And if so, to whom?

Perhaps Northumbria Police are simply wary of setting a potentially unwelcome precedent and offering future offenders against public decorum the opportunity to claim that they were only being "ironic."

In the meantime, Di Canio himself, who told an interviewer in 2005 that he was "a fascist, but not a racist", has questioned the Northumbria Police statement. "I don't understand why the police say this, but it is not an issue for me. I don't have any problem with it."

The manager's controversial interview came in the aftermath of the salute he gave to the home fans while a player with Lazio. That gesture was delivered with perturbing intensity in the Stadio Olimpico - which, incidentally, was built at the behest of Benito Mussolini, the former Italian leader who forms the centrepiece of the tattoo Di Canio sports across on his back which also features the fascist symbols of the imperial eagle and bunched rods, or fasces.

Paolo Di Canio offers Lazio fans his infamous salute in 2005 at the Stadio Olimpico

When football is played at this stadium, by either of its regular residents Lazio or Roma, and especially if they are playing each other, it is a seething cauldron. And when athletics takes place at this arena, it is a large, handsome edifice containing supporters.

The dual usage of the Stadio Olimpico, the centrepiece of the 1960 Olympic Games, points up the vast cultural differences between sports.

The London 2012 Olympic Stadium hosted some of the most purely sporting gatherings one could imagine. Save for the inane plastic bottle-throwing incident before the start of the men's 100 metres, there was no trouble. No hint of trouble. And when it came to the London Paralympics, with a less corporate, less frequently gathered but nevertheless capacity crowd in each night, the atmosphere was even more touchingly decent and innocent.

Michael Norgrove is the first boxer to die following a fight in Britain in 18 years. He was 31, unbeaten in five previous contests and passed away in hospital last Saturday (April 6) morning after collapsing in the fifth round of a bout at The Ring in London's Blackfriars nine days earlier.

To many, his death will symbolise what they consider the brutality and barbarism of what it still referred to as the noble art. Others will rightly point out that nobody forced Norgrove into a boxing ring.

He was well aware of the risks, as was the jockey Ryan Mania who, a day after winning the Grand National on a 66-1 outsider, was thrown from his horse in a bread-and-butter race at Hexham and was hospitalised with severe neck and back and injuries.


Another jockey, the Irishman J T McNamara, is now paralysed from the neck down after a similar fall during the Cheltenham Festival a few days earlier.

The underlying point is that all are victims of what, possibly outside mountaineering, are the most dangerous sporting pursuits known to man. Or women. As they knew very well.

Norgrove's close friend Monica Harris, herself an amateur boxer, has been deeply affected by his death. She said: "I saw him just before his fight and he had the biggest smile on his face, he looked so happy. That will stick with me forever."

Monica now plans to retire from boxing after a final bout this weekend, which she will dedicate to him.

I wasn't at Norgrove's fight but I understand the London-based Zambian, known as the Zambezi Hitman, never appeared to be in trouble from any blows during the bout, in which he had knocked down opponent Tom Bowen in the first round.


He had not struggled with the weight and had taken all the required medicals, including a brain scan.

But he appeared to become unwell during the fifth round when the bout was stopped.

He was treated immediately in the ring by doctors and paramedics, rushed to hospital but has subsequently died following an operation to remove a blood clot from the brain.

Significant factors could be that Norgrove had not fought for two years and at one-time was involved in so-called White Collar boxing, which is not supervised by the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBofC).

Norgrove, a crowd-pleasing light-middleweight and former member of the reputable Repton Club, was a sparring partner of James DeGale, who won a gold medal in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

"I am so sad to hear about the passing of Michael Norgrove," said DeGale. "He will be sadly missed."

Norgrove is the fourth boxer to die in 27 years and the 21st fighter in that same period to require emergency surgery after either a professional fight or an amateur contest in Britain.

Robert Smith, an ex-fighter who is general secretary of the Boxing Board, has defended the safety procedures in force before the contest: "We are one of the strictest authorities in the world. This is an acute injury, this can happen any time. He had his medicals done, he had his brain scans done. There was nothing there of any concern whatsoever, otherwise he wouldn't have been in the ring."


No doubt the political abolitionists are gloving up but those who customarily call for a ban whenever a boxing death occurs have been, oddly silent – perhaps because Parliament has been in recess.

Equally unusually, Norgrove's demise has barely made the newspapers. Certainly not the sports pages more occupied with the fate of a hitherto unknown jockey than that of an equally unknown boxer.

However, the brain injury association Headway said his death was another example of the "brutal and dangerous nature of the sport" and called for it to be outlawed. Chief executive Peter McCabe said: "Every time a boxer gets into the ring, there is a significant risk that they may lose their life or sustain a devastating, life-changing brain injury.

"There are risks involved with all contact sports, but while other sports manage those risks by introducing laws to try to protect participants from blows to the head, the ultimate aim in boxing is to knock your opponent out by repeatedly and deliberately striking their heads. Until this sport is banned, more young lives will be tragically lost."

One suspects this observation and its relevance to pro boxing will have reached the alert ears of the AIBA President Dr C K Wu.


As insidethegames has reported his ultra-ambitious Grand Design to be the poo-bah of boxing in all its forms has got up the nose of other boxing czars, notably Jose Sulaiman, his opposite number as President of the leading professional controlling body the World Boxing Council.

Not to mention those International Olympic Committee (IOC) members who believe he is taking things a bit too far.

As it happens, deaths in amateur boxing are extremely rare – though there was one in Australia two years ago. But I cannot recall a single fatality associated with boxing in the Olympic Games.

Yet the question needs to be posed as to whether the moves to professionalise what used to be known as amateur boxing increase what are already inherent risks in the sport. If you embrace the system, you also embrace the dangers.

The World Series of Boxing is currently the only competition in the world that allows fighters to compete professionally and retain their Olympic eligibility


World Series Boxing (WSB), the new APB (AIBA Professional Boxing) competition and Olympic Boxing are professional in all but name. No headguards, a ten-point scoring system, longer bouts, the age limit now upped to 40 and referees no longer compelled to halt contests at the hint of nosebleed.

Although I have never been convinced that headguards offer that much protection anyway.

Of course, medical safeguards are as rigid as in pro boxing, but the more "professional" AIBA-governed tournaments become surely the risk of the sort of head injuries we see more frequently in the pro prize ring increases.

So should boxing be banned?

I have always maintained that while this bellicose world continues to wage such devastating bomb and bullet-ridden wars, two guys – or girls – punching each other on the nose in legitimate unarmed combat should be the least of our concerns.

This may seem a trite reaction to a tragedy but unpalatable as it may be, ring fatalities, thankfully infrequent, are like jockeys risking life and limb every time they mount a horse, an occupational hazard and will remain so while the sport willingly embraces danger.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

Just shy of 17 months after Australia's Gold Coast were awarded the right to stage 2018 Commonwealth Games; their much anticipated logo was unveiled this week with exactly five years to go to the Opening Ceremony of the competition.

The latest training controversy involving Mario Balotelli - discovered smoking in the toilet during AC Milan's rail journey to Florence this week - has provided a reminder of the vice to which a surprisingly large proportion of our elite sporting performers fall prey.

Baroness Sue Campbell officially retired as chair of UK Sport at the end of last month. We still await news of the appointment of her successor, and that of Richard Lewis at Sport England.

My curiosity has finally been fulfilled. For four years, I wondered what the host city of the 2014 Olympics would be like. I heard so much about this tropical summer resort, this "Russian Paradise."

Last month, in San Francisco, the third edition of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) came to a thrilling conclusion as the Dominican Republic beat Puerto Rico 3-0.

The United States have historically dominated boxing at the Olympic Games. They have won significantly more medals and indeed gold medals than any other nation and it is fair to say that they have produced some of the greatest fighters every to grace the event.

It's five miles exactly from my front door to the posts just down from Hatfield Heath's Co-Op, and as I rounded them I thought: "Perhaps it's going to be OK after all. Perhaps all I needed to do was rest." As my Aunt Stella has always said to me –"Rest the injured part." Wise words. Oh 2013 Virgin London Marathon, tantalising temptress, approach!...