Olympics: Greek member denies London voting blunder

ATHENS - The Greek International Olympic Committee (IOC) member accused of accidentally helping London's winning 2012 Olympics bid through a voting blunder said today he never even voted during the election.

A BBC report last week said a member, thought to be Greece's Lambis Nikolaou, mistakenly voted for Paris in the third round at Singapore on July 6.

That gave the French capital 33 votes to 31 for Madrid instead of 32 each, which would have prompted a vote-off before the final round.

Madrid had been ahead after the second round.

"All speculations reagarding my role in the third round of candidate cities for 2012 are completely unfounded," Nikolaou said in a statement.

"I declare that I did not vote during the third round as I had announced during the election in question."

The accusation of the voting mix-up was made by Alex Gilady, an Israeli IOC member and part of the London 2012 Co-ordination Commission.

He told the programme that an IOC member thought to be Nikolaou made the mistake.

London then beat Paris 54-50 in the final round of voting, although it is widely believed that Madrid would have been a bigger threat to London had it got through to the final round.

Speaking to Greek sports website sportime.gr, Nikolaou said: "It would be impossible to make a mistake because very simply I was the only one of the 104 members who did not vote.

"I don't understand how I found myself being accused and maybe it all started with a mistake by Mr Gilady."

Nikolaou said Gilady had sent him a letter apologising for the furore he had caused.

Gilady also told the website he had never named Nikolaou.

"Never, never did I say that Mr Nikolaou had made the mistake. I am absolutely certain of that," Gilady was quoted as saying.

"I never said it was Nikolaou and I strongly deny ever saying it."

- REUTERS