When Jaffa met Raffa
Aug 7 2008 By Stuart Rayner, The Journal
With the opening ceremony a matter of hours away, Great Britain's boxers are now in situ at the Olympic Village. In part two of our exclusive series, Sunderland's Tony Jeffries tells Stuart Rayner about the mood in the camp and rubbing shoulders with the celebrities.
THIS week Team GB moved their preparations from their Macau holding camp to the Olympic Village in Beijing. The Village is an iconic part of any Games and home to competitors from every sport and nationality.
For someone like Sunderland light-heavyweight boxer Tony Jeffries, making his first appearance at the world's greatest sporting event, even setting foot in the complex which will house the athletes is an awe-inspiring experience.
"Here in Beijing the Olympic Village is just unbelievable," Jeffries comments. "I fought at the last Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and it really reminds me of that, only much bigger.
"Of course there are a lot more athletes here too and I have seen some famous faces already. There's that many here it's hard to notice them all but last night I was sitting having my dinner with Great Britain's team captain, the super-heavyweight David Price, and the Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal walked right past in the canteen. That was weird because on the flight over I was playing tennis on my PSP and I was him every time!"
Jeffries, who opens his campaign for a light-heavyweight medal on Saturday morning British time, has been impressed by the quality of facilities his Chinese hosts have laid on for the athletes.
"The Village is just unbelievable and Beijing is a clean as a whistle," he says. "You can see they've really worked hard to tidy it up.
"I haven't had chance to look around properly yet but they seem to have got everything in the Village perfect. The food hall caters for 16,000 people a day so it's massive and everything in there is free. It's got all types of food from all over the world - even a massive McDonald's. Mind you, there'll be none of that for me until the boxing is over!
"The actually accommodation is just like a modern apartment. We have one big flat we all share. It's spot on."
Jeffries will have to sit out the opening ceremony as he is due to fight the next day (though even now he does not know who he will be up against).
While the sense of excitement about the Olympics is obvious, so too are the concerns over poor air quality.
"The Chinese are buzzing about the Games," says Jeffries. "The banners and logos are all over the city.
"I know there's been a lot said about the pollution before the Games and it's still smoggy here, even in the Village. I've seen a few American athletes walking around with face masks on."
Great Britain began their Far East build-up in a holding camp in Macau and although freak weather conditions hit the preparations of some of his team-mates, Jeffries says it was perfect for the needs of the boxers.
"Macau was really good and it gave us a good indication of what we can expect in China," he adds. "It wasn't very sunny when we were out there but it was red hot. The gym we were training in was a very good one too - a 'proper' dirty, smelly one with no air conditioning, not one of these start of the art ones.
"Fortunately for us we left the day before a typhoon his the city which stopped the athletes we left behind even getting out of their hotel."
