James DeGale won gold for Great Britain at the last Olympics

Plans to move the London 2012 Olympic boxing tournament to Wembley have taken a blow after the British Olympic Association (BOA) opposed the move.

London 2012 organisers want to move the tournament from the intended venue of the ExCel Arena in East London to accommodate other sports.

But the BOA has joined the International Boxing Association in opposing the move to Wembley.

They say moving it to north west London would mean unnecessarily long journeys.

Organisers wanted to move boxing to make space for badminton, rhythmic gymnastics and sitting volleyball at the ExCel, but if that cannot be done, they may be forced to build a £40m venue in north Greenwich.

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BOA chief executive Andy Hunt said their research proved Wembley was an unsuitable venue.

"Both the national governing body and the international federation did extensive evaluations on Wembley as a possibility," he said.

"I think all parties concluded that for boxing it was not the right solution. Boxing want to remain in ExCel, and from the sport's perspective that's what we support."

A meeting of the Olympic Board is due to look at a range of alternative options over the north Greenwich arena on Thursday.

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