Greek voter denies error

The Greek International Olympic Committee member alleged to have accidentally helped London to win the 2012 Olympics has denied making a mistake with his votes. As the IOC ruled out any investigation into claims that an error at the ballot handed London victory last July, Lambis Nikolaou released a statement saying that he had not even voted in the round in question.

It has been suggested Nikolaou voted mistakenly for Paris instead of Madrid in the third round, leading to the Spanish capital being eliminated by 33 votes to 31 and allowing London to win the final round 54-50 against the French city.

It is generally assumed that Madrid would have won a head-to-head contest against London. But Nikolaou said yesterday: "All speculations regarding my role in the third round of candidate cities for 2012 are completely unfounded. I did not vote during the third round as I announced during the election in question."

The suggestion that an IOC member did vote for the wrong city was made by Israeli IOC member, Alex Gilady, who sent Nikolaou a letter to apologise for the furore he has caused.