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23/10/2007
'The Greatest' Opening Ceremony...
As if the biggest World Championships in history needed any more hype, today the opening ceremony welcomed the legendary Muhammed Ali. Following a street procession of all the teams from the hotel to the famous Chicago Theatre the boxers settled down to enjoy the opening ceremony. To everyone's delight the Mayor of Chicago introduced surprise guest Ali to the crowd.
Ali's presence gave a lift to the whole auditorium with chants of 'Ali Ali' ringing out from the crowd. AIBA President Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu also wished the boxers luck and informed the gathered crowd that the AIBA Conference had gone successfully with a programme of modernisation given full support by the delegates (see www.aiba.org for details).
Following the ceremony the boxers quickly refocused, watching a motivational video charting their training and competition over the last 9 months, before travelling back down to the University campus for their final training session. Weigh-in opens on Tuesday morning at 6:30am.
The team have been further lifted by the flurry of messages from well-wishers. Please keep them coming by emailing any words of support to laura.ross@abae.org.uk
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