Boxing: Women's Boxing on Cards for London

Women's boxing is set to be included as a medal sport for the first time at the Olympics, in London in 2012. The International Olympic Committee are to consider an official request this month from the International Amateur Boxing Association for women to be allowed to compete at the Games.

Boxing is the only discipline in the summer Games where women are not represented.

The move is likely to prove controversial, however, because of opposition to women boxing and also because a number of weight categories in the men's division will have to be eliminated to accommodate the introduction of women, similar to what happened in women's wrestling, which is likely to prove unpopular.

But with Jacques Rogge, the president of the IOC, and Anwar Chowdhry, the president of the IABA, apparently committed to supporting women's boxing, its introduction seems inevitable. The sport could even be included on the programme in Beijing in 2008, but London is considered a more realistic target.

More than 30,000 women in 120 countries are estimated to box competitively and the World Championships in Russia, which reach a conclusion today, have attracted 152 boxers from 28 countries.

Britain has started to make preparations for the introduction of women's boxing in expectation of it being included. The Sports Council of Wales staged a come-and-try session yesterday open to women aged 17-34 at the Welsh Institute of Sport in Cardiff. Tony Williams, the Wales coach, reluctantly supervised the 17 women who turned up.

'I'm anti-boxing for women,' Williams said yesterday. 'I just don't think it's right. But if they are going to do it, I at least want to make sure they do it right.

'I've travelled a lot and seen how women's boxing has taken off. I'm surprised by how popular it is proving and we have got to take this on board.

'I may not agree with it, but if they are going to do it, it would be great if one of the girls who have turned up went on to fight for Britain at the London Olympics.'

The first recorded boxing bout between two women in Britain can be traced back to 1720. It was later outlawed and only made legal again in 1998.