The tournament was overshadowed by several controversial decisions, including one involving Ireland's Kenny Egan who was beaten by China's Xiapoing Zhang in the final of the light-heavyweight division.

 

Pat Hickey, the influential president of the European Olympic Committee, claimed that the judges were influenced by the Chinese crowd and that "Kenny Egan was robbed".

 

But Dr Ching-Kuo Wu, the president of the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA), claimed that there was no corruption involved in the Olympics and that any mistakes were down to human error and that they are investigating the possibility of introducing new technology to try to eradicate the problem in the future.

 

Boxing has been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since its introduction to the programme at the 1904 Games in St Louis, except for the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm because it was banned under Swedish law at the time.

 

In recent Games, however, the sport has been dogged by scandal.

 

The scoring system was changed after the 1988 Games in Seoul when America's Roy Jones Jr was clearly robbed of the gold medal by the judges.

 

The new system, introduced in 1992, means that three of the five judges must press a respective boxer’s button within one second for him to receive a point.

 

There is a consensus among boxing experts that the sport at the Olympics has been ruined by the 1992 rule change and Hickey's comments suggest that it could be under threat when the International Olympic Committee votes next year on what sports should be on the Games programme for 2016.

 

Wu is hoping that he can avoid that by changing the scoring system so that the problems that marred Beijing are avoided at London in 2012.

 

Wu said: “With the referee in the ring blocking the view, it is possible that not all the judges get a clear view.

 

"In fact, there is a possibility that a whole new scoring methodology may be adopted.

 

"This system was created years ago.

 

"We are not happy with it.

 

"AIBA is testing a more sophisticated scoring system.

 

“A new machine will be tested by next February.

 

"We are more hurt that anybody else [by the allegations of favouritism] and this is just the beginning of the change.

 

"It will get better."