TWENTY FOUR hours before the biggest sporting challenge of his life, Britain’s boxing prodigy Amir Khan was reunited with his mother, Falak, yesterday as he prepared for the fight she thought she would never see.
He spent a quiet day with her and his father, Shajaad, at the Team GB lodge at the British Embassy in Athens before a final training session.
Mr and Mrs Khan will watch him compete from prime ringside seats tonight after The Times arranged last-minute tickets and hotel accommodation.
The Khan family, from Bolton, Greater Manchester, moved from a shabby motel in Athens to one of the city’s most prestigious hotels yesterday morning.
As they sipped Greek coffee and had a breakfast of fried eggs and warm croissants, they were bubbling over with excitement about tonight’s bout. Mr Khan said: “He is only 17 — he is just a baby really. He wanted his mother out here with him and his brothers and sisters out here to see his big fight. It is wonderful that we are all together.”
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Mrs Khan, 39, added: “It will be very hard for me to watch it, but I will be proud, whether he wins or loses. I am just so pleased to be here with him.” Mr Khan said that Amir had been nicknamed “Baby Britain” by team-mates because he is the youngest member of Team GB.
He has also received a telephone call from his boxing hero, Prince Naseem Hamed, wishing him good luck.
The whole family spent the day by the pool. Mike Jelley, Amir’s coach, was there to offer some last-minute words of advice on how to tackle his opponent. He said that he has been struggling to teach Amir the words to the national anthem in preparation for the medal ceremony.
“He is a bit of a slow learner when it comes to that sort of thing,” he said.
The Team GB lodge offers everything from a computer room to a music centre and home cinema to help to calm the pre-competition nerves of British athletes and their relatives.
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Mr Khan said that his son would have to think about turning professional if he does well at the Games. The lottery support Amir receives, about £1,200 a month, does not cover all his costs, but if he wins a gold medal he will be inundated with lucrative offers.
After his astonishing 97second quarter-final demolition of his Korean opponent, Khan will meet Serik Yeleuov, of Kazakhstan, tonight in his attempt to become Britain’s youngest boxing gold medallist.
If Amir wins, he is likely to meet the reigning Olympic champion, Mario Kindelan of Cuba, in the final at lunchtime on Sunday. Kindelan is a formidable opponent. He is 15 years Khan’s senior and has won every big event he has attended for the past five years, including the 2003 World Championships, in which he was victorious despite a hairline fracture in his left arm.
Even if Khan loses tonight and comes away with just the bronze, he would be the youngest British boxer to win an Olympic medal. The American Floyd Patterson was a month younger than Khan when he won the middleweight gold in 1952. Cassius Clay, later to change his name to Muhammad Ali, was 18 when he won gold in 1960.
At his last bout, security had to intervene to quieten Khan’s father, uncle and coach, such was their excitement.
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