Wu, who is an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board member, spearheaded the movement to get women's boxing onto the programme at the Olympics and at London 2012, the three categories of flyweight, lightweight and middleweight featured alongside the ten male weight categories.

A phenomenal tournament at ExCeL saw Britain's Nicola Adams (pictured above, left), Ireland's Katie Taylor and America's Claressa Shields claim historic gold medals in the three weight categories respectively and Wu said the success of the event has boosted the chances of more women's categories in Brazil in four years' time.

"I said before the start of the event that the female boxers needed to impress at London 2012 and they certainly did that," Wu told insidethegames.

"It was a very proud moment for me because they surprised everyone with their talent and the spectators were fully behind them.

"By performing so well, I now have the best possible platform to fight to get more categories included at the next Olympics.

"It is not easy because the IOC is looking to keep the number of events down but it is something I will push for and discuss at length with Christophe Dubi [the IOC sports director].

"I have heard from many of my colleagues in the IOC that they enjoyed watching women's boxing so we have a great chance to have more weight categories in the future."

Katie Taylor took gold in the London 2012 women's boxing lightweight final

Wu also heaped praise on the London 2012 boxing competition at ExCeL which he claimed was one of the best in the history of the Olympics.

"There is no doubt that London 2012 did a fantastic job with the boxing event and I must congratulate my friend Seb Coe [London 2012 chairman] and his team for all the work they have done in putting on a tournament of this quality," he said.

"London is a city with a proud boxing history and I think we saw that with the huge support for all the boxers.

"All the seats were full every single day of the event and that is something we are delighted to see at AIBA.

"So I can say that following the conclusion of London 2012, we are very happy and looking forward to a bright future at the Olympics."

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