During the five years that I shadowed my current job in Opposition, one complaint dominated all others - namely that the organisation of British sport was too disparate and complicated. Report after report urged Government to simplify the structure and, to be fair to them, many of my Labour predecessors agreed.

That process has been given added impetus by the financial situation that we have inherited. Given this backdrop, it is incumbent on me, as the Minister for Sport and the Olympics, to ensure that as much money as possible reaches the front line - whether it is to athletes preparing for London 2012 or to the sport national governing bodies and community sports organisations trying to increase participation.

At the end of last month, we, therefore, announced that UK Sport and Sport England would be brought together under one roof. I also want to incorporate as much of the Youth Sport Trust (YST) as is practical, given their charitable status, into the new body. In my mind, it will retain separate divisions for elite sport, community sport and school sport, largely replicating the functions of the existing bodies.

However, it will produce a more unified and coherent structure and will enable the new organisation to share a number of back office and associated functions. It will also end the unfortunate current situation where all three organisations occupy separate, and expensive, Central London offices - although, to be fair, the YST’s London base is relatively small.

This should not be seen as a reflection on the performance of the current organisations. UK Sport played a key part in delivering our record medal haul in Beijing and Sport England’s new Whole Sport Strategy, focused on increasing participation through sport national governing bodies, is already yielding promising results. The Youth Sport Trust, which has achieved much in recent years, is also vital to the delivery of the new Schools Olympic-style competition - that will drive up the amount of competitive sport played in schools.

As you would expect, given that the coalition Government is barely three months old, some of the detail remains to be finalised.

In particular, we need to safeguard the UK focus of UK Sport’s work through arrangements that command the confidence of our partners in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We also need to decide upon an appropriate location for this new body and the exact governance arrangements to control it.

The Youth Sport Trust’s status as a charity needs careful handling and I am also acutely conscious of the need not to disrupt preparations for London 2012, either in athlete or community sports legacy terms. It is, therefore, likely that we will wait until 2012/13 before vesting the new body.

Having lived through a period of structural change whilst I was in was in the army in the early 90s, I know that this has the potential to be an unsettling period for those working in the organisations affected. I have already been to Sport England to talk to the staff about this and will make a similar visit to UK Sport after the summer break.

However, this is a genuine opportunity to make the structure of sport more unified, focussed and cost effective. Post-2012, I want this country to have the best sports structure anywhere in the world.

It would be a fantastic legacy from London’s Olympics.

Hugh Robertson is the Sports and Olympics Minister

If Simon Cowell had as good an eye for sporting talent as he has for precocious hip-hoppers and matronly warblers he would have been walking on air (as well as his built-up brogues) around Heathrow’s Holiday Inn earlier this week.

For assembled there, being kitted out prior to flying that night to Singapore, were some 40 of the nation’s finest young sportsmen and women.

As not-so-simple Simon has discovered to his financial advantage, Britain may well have talent when it comes to showbiz. But it also has it in abundance in the games our young people play.

The place was teeming with teenage talent from just about every Olympic sport excitedly heading for the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore and all hoping to make a name for themselves.

A few already have, like world champion diver Tom Daley, no longer a boy wonder at 16, and worldly enough to inform us in the Team GB handbook that apart from scooping even more medals his ambition is to meet Cheryl Cole. There was 400 metres runner Victoria Ohuruogu, Christine’s little sister, not-so-little big shot Sophie McKinna ,15-year-old  Great Yarmouth shot-put protege of Geoff Capes and Sam Oldham, a gymnast tipped to exceed the Olympic bronze medal achievement of training partner Louis Smith.

But by and large the British Olympic Association’s youth squad are not familiar to the general public, appreciated as they may be by families and friends and within their own particular sport.

The hope is that the forthcoming Games will be a springboard to fame, perhaps even fortune, in London two years hence, or more likely Rio in 2016.

These kids hold the key to Britain’ sporting future, and so widespread  is the talent from archery to taekwondo, athletics to triathlon, that it augurs well for some golden moments in the Olympics to come.

Before then, though, these Youth Olympics will be a real test of the extent of their ability. Not just because of what the event is, but,  where it is taking place.

Hot, humid Singapore is not normally a place one would associate with big-time sport. When I worked there in the eighties, as a deputy editor of the renowned English language newspaper The Straits Times, fun and games were simply not on the agenda of the authoritarian government headed by the redoubtable Lee Kuan  Yew.  

Education, eating and making money occupied the top three places on Singapore’s podium of priorities. Sport (which could be defined as anything outside jogging), was an also ran, receiving little in the way of encouragement or inducements.

But if evidence is needed to prove that sport has the power to change political will it comes with the staging of the Youth Olympics. From being among the last places on earth one would expect to be associated with sports meet of such magnitude, this tiny multi-cultural former British colony, the size of the Isle of Wight, has seen the sporting light under the enlightened stewardship of Lee’s son, Lee Hsien Loong.

Now Singapore has discovering that not only does sport bring social benefits healthwise but there’s money and political kudos in it, too. Business, as they say, is business.



Hence their successful bid for the Youth Olympics, which follows the  staging of two night-time F1 Grands Prix and hosting the International Olympic Committee congress when London got the nod for 2012.

"Yes, we have now recognised the powerful influence sport has on society," the Singapore Sports Council senior director Bervyn Lee tells us.

So next week the young Brits will be among the 3,600 athletes from 203 nations competing in 26 Olympics sports. Also there will be will be 30 London youngsters, who between them speak six languages, chosen to assist as volunteers, a reward for the spare time work there with underprivileged kids. A really nice touch, that, as is the appointment of two outstanding and most delightful British Olympians to act as team mentors, modern pentathlon silver medallist Georgina Harland and Amy Williams, the bubbly bob skeleton queen of speed. 

All will find that Singapore, sticky and sultry as it is climatically, is the perfect host nation-as long as the guests stick to the rather rigid rules. Penalties for misbehaviour can be severe in a nation where hanging and flogging anachronistically remain in vogue.

So what will Singapore reap from the Youth Olympics? Well, should they be successful, it will be another feather in the cap of Ser Miang Ng, their International Olympic Committee member who became a vice-president under Jacques Rogge on the strength of his masterminding of that fateful 2005 IOC congress.

How incredible that a country which once had no time for sport might now have a Singaporean in contention for the most powerful post on Planet Sport,  the presidency of the IOC. Fascinating thought.

So is the notion that Singapore is using the Youth Olympics as a barometer for a bid to stage the Commonwealth Games in 2022. And why not? It seems the ideal place for them: safe, sanitised, super-efficient and economically stable: Quite a contrast to New Delhi…and, er, come to think of it, Glasgow!

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics and 10 Commonwealth Games

St Pancras Station recently provided a glimpse of how London 2012 might best be used to encourage more sporting participation. Throughout the station’s concourses, amid the hurried din of rush hour, was the clicking of ping pong balls against bat and table.

Commuters faced Olympians, as Ping! London was launched, a new initiative bringing table tennis out of the leisure centre and onto the streets.

This summer, Ping! will see 100 temporary tables set up in busy areas throughout the capital, linked via challenges and a series of events that ranges from the obvious "The Ping Pong Ball"  to the offbeat "Literary Ping Pong".

Next Summer, the tables will take to the road. They will return in 2012 to allow visitors and residents the chance to play Olympic sport in London’s best known public places. Permanent tables, meanwhile, have been built from concrete in the East London boroughs that will host the Games, ready for anyone to use.

Emphasising the social side of the sport is key to the English Table Tennis Association’s (ETTA) strategy for developing popularity. "Informal participation, alongside club participation is really important to us," said ETTA chief executive Richard Yule. "We think that self-organised people getting together using social media will be massive for table tennis. It’s just so easy to do.

"We also expect there will be people who will come in through that route who will get hooked on the game and find their way into our organised structures."

The informal ways to play sport have been significant sources of growth in recent years, from casual jogging in preparation for a charity 10K to the renting of seaside kayaks. And this is the kind of sporting opportunity most likely to tempt the sedentary off the sofa in the context of 2012, according to research by Professor Mike Weed of the University of Canterbury.

Sports hoping to emulate table tennis with new initiatives - which have been embraced by London Mayor Boris Johnson (pictured) - are likely to encounter some fairly high hurdles, however.

Especially if they look to the same source of funding as Ping!, Sport England.

Deep cuts from the Government department that funds Sport England, Department for Culture, Media and sport, are certain, even after being offset by a raise in the share of Lottery money paid out to sport and the arts.

Speaking to staff at DCMS recently, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "The best-case scenario is still going to be a scenario in which there are going to be bigger cuts than any of the areas we represent have ever had to face, probably in their history."

Sport England’s Olympic legacy plan, originally expected this month, has now been delayed at least until the completion of the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review, due to be made public in late October.

Faced with cuts, the national governing bodies of sport may well be inclined to retrench, protecting their traditional club structures. Britain’s sedentary majority will most likely respond by sticking to the sofa - more people are sedentary now than in 2005. The opportunity to use 2012 as a means to sustainably bring more informal sport to the host country’s streets and parks will not come around again.

But there may yet be cause for optimism. Increased media coverage for community sport in the lead-up to the Games, combined with the commercial potential of high-visibility street sport - Ping! is also sponsored by Yahoo! - may still see the private sector make a meaningful contribution.

Mark Dolley is the managing director of Taking Part, a social enterprise working to link 2012 with community sport. He was formerly head of communications for the Olympic Games at the IOC. For more details on Ping! click here

There is something really very special about competing at major championships. The atmosphere is electric, the stakes are high and the months of training and preparation are put to the ultimate test. 

This month I’m competing at the IPC World Swimming Championships in Eindhoven - a chance to pit myself against some of my key rivals and gauge where I’m at with two years to go until the London 2012 Paralympics.

For me one of the most compelling elements about competing in major championships is the psychological games that go on ahead of a big race. If your head’s not right and you’ve let your rivals get the better of you in the mind games, a competition can be lost before you’re even in the pool. 

For me, I learnt on the job how to deal with this aspect of elite sport - the importance of keeping focused, keeping a low profile where necessary and keeping my mind on what I need to do in the race rather than worrying about my competitors. It’s an approach that works for me - but others may have very different ways of dealing with this aspect of competition.

Next month I’ll be attending the Sainsbury’s UK School Games, a major multi sport event managed by the Youth Sport Trust, which provides the perfect platform for young people to experience the same pressures of elite sport that I face when competing.   

Over 1,600 elite school aged athletes will descend upon North East England to compete in cycling, athletics, badminton, fencing, gymnastics, hockey, judo, swimming, table tennis and volleyball, with disability events in swimming, athletics and table tennis, including learning disability for swimming, table tennis and for the first time, athletics.  



For many it will be their first experience of a major competition and a chance to learn about the pressures of top level sport, which of course includes dealing with the mind games!  They will also face the usual distractions you would expect from a major sporting event. 

The opening ceremony, the athlete’s village, the meeting new people and travelling around a city you may not be familiar with - all these things can take your mind off the main task in hand - competing and winning. Some will undoubtedly get swept up in the atmosphere and will let it affect their performance, whilst others will keep the focus on the one thing that really matters - their performance.

Allowing young people the opportunity to face these kinds of pressures at an early age can only benefit them later in their careers when they’re competing for major honours. To know what to expect and how to deal with it will ensure they make the perfect preparations and be at their very best when it matters most.

Sascha Kindred is a School Sport Ambassador for the Youth Sport Trust. He has won a total of six Paralympic, eight World and eleven European Championship gold medals and has represented Great Britain in four Paralympic Games thus far. He currently holds a number of British, European, Paralympic and world records. The Sainsbury’s UK School Games take place September 2-5 in North East England.  For further information click here

The front cover of Sweden’s Sport Bladet paper carries a picture of a sprinter arriving in Stockholm  for his latest race. He’s wearing a blue t-shirt and jeans, with a denim men’s bag slung over his shoulder and a blue baseball cap set slightly back on his head.

Alongside his giant image are the words he uttered to the waiting world as he made his way through Arlanda airport: "What’s up? What’s up? What’s up?  I’m here."

Quiz question. Is this a) Usain Bolt or b) Tyson Gay?

For those of you who guessed a) - well yes, obviously. For those of you who guessed b) - I beg you, seek treatment.

The way these two outstanding athletes engage with the wider public is as contrasting as their sprinting techniques. And I can’t help feeling that the public dynamic works for Bolt in a way it doesn’t for Gay.

It is not simply that Gay, with a meek voice that puts you in mind of Michael Jackson, is an introvert and Bolt, affable and easy, is an extrovert.

Bolt, as he mentioned again this week at the press conference preceding the DN Galan Diamond League meeting in the Swedish capital, is a bit of a stay-at-home. He spends many hours at his house in Kingston playing PlayStation games either alone or with his younger brother. When he is on the athletics circuit, he heads not for the lobby, but the privacy of his room.

But where Bolt differs so dramatically from Gay is the way he responds to the clamour of attention once he has left that room.



The press conference, in a cramped space within the Nordic Sea Hotel, was a perfect case in point. Gay preceded Bolt into the cockpit of jostling cameramen, photographers and reporters, and for a few moments his eyes seemed to widen with apprehension.

"I’m pumped up a little bit right now," he said. Quietly. "The reality is hitting."

Asked how he liked running against Bolt, Gay responded: "I don’t know why you are all here, whether it’s for me or for him. But this is the first time this year I’ve got this attention, and I’m loving it. Even giving autographs outside the hotel. It’s great."

Well, he said he was loving it. But he didn’t act like he was loving it. Having said he would not be following the proposed course of going to a separate table to answer further press enquiries - his name-tag awaited him along with three bottles of still water - he looked as if he wanted to employ one of his famous smooth starts and get the hell out.

Bolt, naturally, revelled in the attention. Clearly he didn’t want to be all day answering questions, but his responses were immediately engaging and interesting. In sprinting terms, public appearances make Gay tighten up and bring a performance out of Bolt.

Gay (pictured) was asked a follow up question by the event compere about his apparent surprise at being noticed: "When you look in mirror, do you see yourself as a star?"

His reply was down-to-earth and instructive.

"This morning I saw that I needed a shave, so I got a shave," he said. "I guess I don’t look at myself like that  because my family don’t  treat me like that, if you know what I’m saying.

"Even though I’ve been here several times, every time I come back I’m still shocked to see that someone might want my autograph. It might sound naive, but I find it strange to think that people from another country should know me."

As a follow up, both men were invited to ask each other a question. Bolt asked Gay about his daughter - who it transpires is already starting at the track.

Gay’s question of Bolt was almost plaintive.

"I would like to know," he said, "how do you mentally prepare yourself, with all the excitement, before you go into a race?"

And the response said everything about the dynamic that has made Bolt into a figure who has transcended his sport.

"For me I kind of like it," he said. "I like the energy the crowd gives me, it helps me to relax, and it helps me to build up my motivation to get ready for the race."

It doesn’t mean that Bolt will win every race he runs. But it does mean that, whenever he goes to the line, he is able to access an enormous additional power. And that gives him another huge advantage along with his outrageous natural gifts.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames

The Newham Sports Academy with Tessa Sanderson (NSA) was launched in October 2006.  It is a unique sports programme which I have shaped with Newham Council, who are the main funder of the NSA. The rest of the funding I simply have to dig deep to find from sponsors, using persuasiveness and a smile.

The concept came from me thinking about what I, as someone from a working-class background, needed to help me succeed as a young athlete. I wanted to make it a little bit easier for those wanting to emulate me in winning my gold medal in 1984. 

It is amazing that we now have over 70 members drawn for a range of sports.

The NSA works under a talent identification process in schools, colleges, community centres, and then train the members we identify.

Athletics coaches include Lloyd Cowan, the UK Athletics sprint hurdles and 400 metres; Clarence Callender former UK Athletics junior team coach; Ayo Falola, who coaches 800m, Greg Richards, Britain's former multi event coach, and Tony Jarrett, the 1993 world 110m hurdles silver medallist.

We also have coaches from boxing, GB Paralympic wheelchair track and field events, as well as Michelle Weltman, who coaches triathlon and is a Disability Swim coach, and another former Olympian Linda Strachan coaches our fencers.

The Academy could not function without these special coaches, or without the range of community coaches and clubs that underpin the work the Academy does.

I took a leading role in appointing the coaches, and I was determined to use people that had competed on the international stage, and had the experience and coaching qualifications. It is also vital that the coaches are able to communicate effectively, as it is really important that they help with life skills of the young members, as well as their technical training.

As well as coaching the NSA provides bursaries for the youngsters to travel to and from competition, training at local grounds free, working with physios, nutrition and bio-mechanics and whenever possible making sure they have the equipment for competition. 



Members have increased to a higher level in the sport and have shown tremendous changes in their ability and performance in competitions. 

For example:

• Four of the NSA fencers went on to be selected for GB young cadets, and two of the four went on to compete in the European and World Championships for their age group

• Boxer Dudley O'Shaunessy has recently competed for England against USA at York Hall

• Vicky Ohuruogu has qualified for the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Singapore with a time of 54.17sec,  knocking a full five seconds of her best result last year 2009 of 59.3 and this only being her second year at the events. Vicky is the younger sister of Christine, the Beijing Olympic champion, and I am hopeful that for the first time we could see sisters running in the same event for Team GB at the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympics        

Vicky is coached by Lloyd Cowan, who, in my personal opinion is the best coach Britain has, which is reflected in his coaching of Andy Turner, the gold medallist at the recent European Championships in Barcelona.

Tessa Sanderson is the 1984 Olympic javelin champion. She competed in a record six Olympic Games. The Newham Sports Academy is the first scheme of its kind to offer full support to non-elite athletes in a range of Olympic sports. It gives local young people, in one of the poorest areas in England, the opportunity to take their sporting talent to another level and a chance to compete in the London 2012 Olympic Games

I wonder how many of England’s World Cup wallies watched the European Athletic Championships last week end and hung their heads in shame?

Certainly not Wayne Rooney who, if you believe what you read in The Sun (and actually, sometimes you can) was otherwise preoccupied carousing into the early hours peeing, in the street and puffing a fag. 

The way Britain’s athletes went about their task reminded me of that line from the Punch and Judy shows that were so popular before the pc brigade outlawed Mr Punch’s antics, "That’s the way to do it".

Indeed it was. The golden headlines of Barcelona were splashed across the front pages of most weekend sport sections, and rightly so. The success of Jessica Ennis even led the front page of my own paper, the Independent on Sunday.

But had all this happened in just over a week’s time when the Premier League kicks off, would the exploits of our athletes still have got the same treatment?  Unlikely. After all Rooney might have stubbed his big toe - which at least would make a change from stubbing out a roll-up. There was even less chance that the footy flops would have been shame-faced when reading about the achievements in Barcelona - that is if they ever read anything other than the club programme notes and their own match reports. 

I’d hate to be a football journalist these days - it would depress me. Try setting up an interview with even a player of modest talent and you have to go through a network of managers, agents, lawyers and press officers - and then you usually find he wants "copy approval". That is, to vet the interview before it goes into print and additiopnally he will probably insist on a tag line crediting the latest product he is endorsing. Oh for those times some of us can happily remember when we had the likes of Bobby Moore’s home number, could ring him up and arrange to meet him in his local hostelry for a chat and a beer (or two).

But enough wishful thinking. Back to Barcelona. What happened there underscored that Britain really does have sporting talent, even if it really shows itself when it matters on the football pitch. These past few weeks have seen a spell-binding performance from several of the young group of acrobatic gymnastics geniuses known as Spelbound, who followed up their Britain's Got Talent telly triumph by swinging and swirling their way to the World Championship in the sport which surely deserves to become an Olympic discipline. This followed the performances by British gymnasts led by the redoubtable Beth Tweddle in the European Championships where they won 15 medals, an accomplishment on a par with that of the athletes.

Gymnastics is by no means alone in registering international glory this year. Recently fencing, modern pentathlon, boxing, taekwondo, triathlon and archery have also seen young Brits climbing on to the world or European podium, yet their successes, like that of the phenomenal Chrissie (Iron Woman) Wellington, who has set a new world long distance triathlon record seemed to have slipped under the sporting radar while England’s footballers were skulking their way to ignominy in the World Cup.

While Fabio Capello’s crew may have thought they could walk on water before they were forced to walk the plank one squad who proved they actually can are Britain’s consistently prolific water-skiers who have dominated the sport for some years and have now cleaned up in the World wake-board championships, winning men’s, women’s, girls’, boys’ and team titles in Germany. 

How refreshing it was too, to hear the delightful Ennis articulate about her victory, a contrast to the formulaic, often monosyllabic responses from the majority of the over-paid and over-valued football fraternity when ever a microphone is thrust in front of them. 

And what is it that GB head coach, Charles Van Commonee has got that Capello hasn’t? For a start he has athletes working under him who seem intrinsically proud to be representing their country and do not regard taking part in a major competition as an irritating chore. Steven Gerrard and his not so merry men looked as if they could not get away quick enough to play beach football rather than the real thing. 

In some ways, the Dutchman reminds me more of Sir Alf Ramsey than Capello in the way he commands the respect of his athletes. 

Mind you, dear old Sir H’Alf would never have bollocked anyone within earshot of the media - or the public as van Commonee has been known to do. 

Both have got results because of discipline and mutual trust. The way Van Commonee has helped British athletics pick itself up after a dismal spell is quite heartening. 

Of course, counting chickens is not yet an Olympic pursuit so we must hope that the track and field scribes do not fall into the same craven trap as their football correspondent counterparts and start hanging Olympic medals around the necks of the athletes on the strength of what happened in Barcelona’s Euros.

My one time colleague, Neil Wilson got it bang on in the Daily Mail when he reminded us not to get ahead of ourselves, pointing out that despite the shed-load of European medals, only heptathlete Ennis and triple jumper Phillips Odowu can be pencilled in now as favourites for the 2012 podium. It is still a sobering thought that hurdler Dai Greene was the only track athlete in Barcelona whose performance ranks him in this years top six - at sixth. 

As Wilson wrote, "the cold shower of reality will hit us when the Africans, Americans and Aussies come out to play in the World Championships and Olympics." Double gold medallist distance runner Mo Farrah, delightful bloke and formidable athlete that he is, will need to beat a whole string of Kenyans and Ethiopians if he is to be anything other than just a contender in London. 

A final thought on the advancing football season (not that it ever seems to have gone away): Wembley is likely to be less than half full, even with cut-price tickets for the forthcoming meaningless international against Hungary. Presumably it was intended as an occasion to celebrate an England homecoming after a triumphant or even half decent performance in South Africa. 

Instead it is now a more of a mournful wake, an opportunity for the frustrated fans to vent their disappointment - even disgust is not too strong a word  - at the way their fallen idols have let them down. The best thing the FA could have done is to let the public in free as a penance for that woeful World Cup showing. They might also invite the heroes and heroines of Barcelona to do a lap of honour and insist Capello and co stand, watch and learn.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics and 10 Commonwealth Games

Fresh from my success at the European Championships, I unfortunately experienced the worst injury of my career to date.

Preparing for the World Championships in Rotterdam, I fell on the on the tumble track and landed awkwardly during a normal routine that saw me hyper extend my legs. An MRI scan showed a tear to my Anterior Cruciate Ligament which meant I would need an operation to reconstruct the ligament. 

Sine then I have been through an intense rehabilitation programme and worked with some of the best physiotherapists and surgeons.

In the early stages I was unable to do much. Doctor’s orders were plenty of rest with a little upper body conditioning to improve my strength on the rings. At the time it seemed that there was such a long way to go, but I felt positive and confident that I would return even fitter and stronger than before.

Being out of the gym for that length of time I was a little concerned about my fitness and was prepared for it to be a challenge to get back to where I was before my injury.  But as I enter the12th week of my rehabilitation programme, I am back at the gym full time and apart from some obvious weakness in my legs my overall condition is 70 per cent, which I am really happy with. 

These last couple of weeks I have been back on the pommel and parallel bars, working on some key elements of my routines.

However my main focus is now to re-build the strength in my legs and increase my overall condition before I can get back on the other four apparatus. So far my training is going really well; fingers crossed it continues.

It’s great to be back in the gym training with my team mates again. I am currently aqua jogging which is going really well and I hope to move onto jogging on dry land after I get the go ahead from my surgeon in two weeks time.

I would like to say a big thank you to my physiotherapy team and surgeon who have managed my rehabilitation programme so well and kept my fitness level high throughout.  They have helped me get back to gymnastics as quickly as possible and it is down to them that I am on the mend and well on the way to competing again.

Daniel Keatings, who is powered by Opus Energy, made history last October when he became the first British gymnast to win a medal in the All-Around event at the World Gymnastics Championships. To find out more about his sponsorship deal with Opus Energy click here

Stats and numbers. The entire sporting world is obsessed with them, be it Britain’s fourth place in the medal table in Beijing or Muttiah Muralitharan’s amazing 800 test match wickets and athletics is no different.

Times, distances and heights are the very foundation of our sport and beyond that some would question the need for other stats in athletics and often I would agree.

But I was presented with some numbers this week that really gave me food for thought, signalling that British athletics is a sport with a very bright future.

The IAAF World Junior Championships were held last month in Canada and many of you may have read some of the extensive coverage on Jodie Williams (pictured) and her outstanding gold medal in the women’s 100 metres. But she wasn’t the only GB medallist in Monkton nor the only gold medallist, with Sophie Hitchon also a World Junior champion, winning the hammer in style with a superb final throw. In fact British athletics had its best world junior event for two decades or to use another stat, for the last ten editions of that event.

This, combined with a series of other results from last year, including our best ever World Championships since 1993, our best ever European under-23 and World under-18 showing, clearly demonstrates rising performances across the board in all disciplines as well as an increase in strength and depth as athletes move up the age groups.

So there were eight medals for the Aviva GB Junior team in Canada, that’s three more than in 2008 and 2006 and eight more than we achieved in 2004. But what we are trying to achieve in athletics goes beyond the medal tally, it’s about each athlete stepping up and performing beyond expectations and progressing at each and every major championship. We saw that this year, there were nine outstanding personal bests from some young and very talented athletes, across a range of events taking in running, jumping and throwing, all of which bodes well for the future of athletics.

Additionally beyond those eight medals a further seven athletes placed in the top eight . This is a particularly important statistic; once an athlete has made a final anything can happen. However we generally work off of a fifty percent conversion rate in finals with half of those in finals expecting to medal. So clearly the more finalists we have the more medals we have a chance of winning.

We have similar stats for our senior programme, that also demonstrate improvements, not just year on year, but Olympic cycle on Olympic cycle which is excellent news just two years out from London. But more about that on another day.

We have also revolutionised the way we support these young athletes and their coaches. Previously they would have been put on funding and become part of the World Class Performance Programme. Instead we now support the athlete coach pair directly, recognising that the needs of these young athletes are different to their senior counterparts and the hugely important role that their coach plays in nurturing their talent. The coach is supported as much as the athlete as it is clear both will play such a central role in the future of our sport.

The progression of the junior programme, led by our Head of Coaching and Development Kevin Tyler and former Olympian Jo Jennings is a crucial part of our 2012 legacy.

As the guardians of the sport in the UK we must strike a very fine balance between success and medals at our home Olympic Games in 2012 and ensuring we use this once in a lifetime opportunity to get the sport in the best shape possible to continue that success at 2016 and beyond.

So all things considered as I sit and write this from Barcelona on the morning of the penultimate day of European Championships where the Aviva GB team has won 11 medals after four days of competition, with, I’m sure more to come, the number one Olympic and Paralympic sport is faring well. Those green shots of recovery have started to blossom and the numbers show you how.

Niels de Vos in the chief executive of UK Athletics

News broke last week that the Government is to merge UK Sport and Sport England in order to streamline the running of sport in this country.

I believe such a merger is not only welcome but long overdue. That said it is with cautious optimism that I welcome the announcement for the new structure will be meaningless without the right strategy in place.

What the proposed streamlined structure does is to align the way sport is managed in this country in a way the current model does not.

The development of sport from the very bottom of the grass roots to the very top of the podium should be a continuum, an unbroken chain. Indeed, there is something called "the Sports Development Continuum" which has been overlooked by Government and its Quangos for too long.

The Sports Development Continuum provides a simple model to ensure sport is catered for at all ages, stages and abilities and although only four words long (Foundation, Participation, Performance and Excellence) serviced properly, it covers all elements required in a way that lumping great aspirations together and hoping they find linkage does not.

Under the previous Government, we have seen little understanding of this basic principle as sport has been "lumped" into either "elite" or "mass participation" or "school sport". No flow, no continuum.

This has, in part, been due to the fractured administration of sport where UK Sport looks after their "lump", Sport England theirs and the Youth Sport Trust theirs. Although each has their "strategy", this is horizontal integration of strategy where vertical integration is clearly called for.

That vertical integration of strategy will be further aided when other Government departments, who have a stake in sport, such as Education and Health, find they only need to communicate with one body when coordinating plans. Revolutionary thinking I know, but I did say cautious optimism and I am typing with my fingers crossed!

In bringing the different bodies together care and consideration will be needed to ensure that where there has been good work it is continued and ultimately improved upon while the lower quality delivery all too often seen in many areas must not be mistaken for being better than it is.

UK Sport, for example, have overseen a rise in excellence in elite sport in this country the envy of much of the world although behind the headlines there are sports which have struggled to keep pace and medal counts have been boosted by a small group of overachieving sports rather than higher levels across all (or at least the majority).

Delivery of excellence can only be maintained and improved if the supply route bringing talent through foundation, participation and performance is strong; you cannot plan one part of the continuum without consideration for the rest.

Below national level there will undoubtedly be a rush to restructure before any new unified, Sports Development Continuum based strategy is in place. Such restructuring must be avoided until the demands of strategy are known for, as I have said before in this blog, structure should be strategy’s servant, not its master; a mistake from the past which must not be repeated.

A further benefit to sport which I am sure the Minister has considered, and much of grass roots sport will applaud, will be the reduction in waste as, theoretically at least, more money finds its way to sport rather than to its (currently) overpopulated administration.

So; cautious optimism from this corner but, as ever, the real devil will be in the detail.

Jim Cowan is a former athlete, coach, event organiser and sports development specialist who is the founder of Cowan Global, a company specialising in consultancy, events and education and training. For more details click here

The list of Britain’s European 5000 metres champions is not long, but it is illustrious: Sydney Wooderson, Bruce Tulloh, Ian Stewart, Brendan Foster, Jack Buckner.

The list of those Britons who have won both the European 5000 and 10,000 is even less long. It comprises one name: Mo Farah.

It is also illustrious.

Farah, already in the happy position of being the first Briton to win the European 10,000m title, has now managed an achievement that is both historic and hugely popular.

There will be those who tut-tutted at the way the Somali-born athlete slowed and gestured to the Spanish champion Ayad Lamdessem to take the lead in the 10,000m after the two men had broken away from the rest of the field with three laps to go.

Farah didn’t want to lead, but to follow; and to choose his moment to strike. It was a calculated action which he would probably not have had the confidence to take four years ago, when another Spaniard, the convincingly named Jesus Espana, beat him to the European 5.000m title by just 0.09sec.

But the naturalised Briton managed to achieve the desired switch with charm, smiling that dazzling smile of his until the poor home runner could no longer resist his mischievous invitation.

Of course, those actions would have had the effect of making the Spaniards in the 5.000m final all the more determined to tip back Farah’s ambitions.

However, after he discovered an apparent extra chamber of energy over the final 200 metres, no one was able to prevent the Briton from becoming only the fifth man to complete a European 5000/10,000m double - not even his nemesis from 2006, Espana, who congratulated his emotionally stricken opponent at the finish line after finishing in silver medal position.

Viva Farah!

Like so many others, I have looked forward to the time when this amiable young man would have the reward his talent and increasing dedication deserved. Now his moment has finally arrived, and he is looking forward to next year’s World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, and the small gathering in London a year after that, with rising ambition.

Farah is finally arriving at the position that was being forecast for him a decade ago when, as a hugely promising 16-year-old, he started to produce performances that made him stand out.

I first spoke to him in unpromising circumstances early in 2000 - nearly seven years after he had arrived in England as a refugee from a war-torn Somalia to join his father, who was already living in the country. Young Mo was waiting at a bus-stop with his school mates, and as I strained to hear his quiet voice the task suddenly became more vexed as a bus arrived and everybody piled on.

Against a background of noise which made it seem as if his fellow pupils were systematically destroying their means of transport, Farah recalled how his knowledge of the English language was so limited when he arrived in Hounslow from Mogadishu that he got into a fight on his first day at school.

He also remembered how, during his first cross-country race for the Borough of Hounslow club, he had lost the chance of winning when he took a wrong turning, baffled by the signs on the course.

But that talented, if confused young athlete has now very definitely found his way – and cross-country has been his means of reaching the position in which he now finds himself.

In December 2006, I saw him earn his first significant gold after six consecutive silver medals as he took the European Cross-Country title at San Giorgio su Legnano.



Earlier that year he had had a reward for throwing in his lot with the Kenyan athletes who used Teddington as their European training base when he produced the second fastest 5,000m time by a Briton, 13min 09.40sec.

Clearly, when he took to the course in Italy he was in a position to win. And, like Paula Radcliffe, who gave him a pep-talk on the eve of the last European 5,000m final, he has followed up a breakthrough on the grass with one on the track. 

Had circumstances been different, Farah might have been giving the Netherlands cause for celebration this week. When he emigrated in 1993, the original plan was for him to come to Britain and then go on to Holland to live with his grandmother. But he liked Britain so much that he stayed.

David Bedford, the Virgin London Marathon’s international race director, likes to recall the time he managed to persuade Farah to have a night out with him and others in 2006, at the end of which the runner decided to take off all his clothes and jump into the Thames off Kingston Bridge.

"I don’t have as many nights out nowadays," he told me. "But if I have something to celebrate in the future, anything can happen!"

Let’s hope that, once he had recovered his emotions after completing his Barcelona double, someone was keeping a careful of an eye on him…

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames

It was 30 years ago this week we travelled to Washington with heavy hearts, the United States Olympic team that wasn’t.

There were 466 American athletes and our United States Olympic Committee staff and delegation with nowhere to go.

In the meantime, 5,512 athletes from 81 nations competed in Moscow in the hollow 1980 Olympic Games boycotted by the US and 65 other nations, persuaded  by the klutzes of the Carter Administration to stay home to punish the host Soviet Union for its incursion into Afghanistan in 1979.

These athletes, the best of our nation, had come to the nation’s capital resigned, finally, to the fact that they would not get their shot at an Olympic Dream after months of uncertainty.

Of that squad, 219 of them would never get another chance to make a future Olympic team, their dreams dying in the embers of a fire that proved to be one of the biggest mistakes ever in using sport and athletes as political pawns.

The USOC, mindful of the achievements and bludgeoned hopes of this team, was in the process of spending almost a million dollars to bring the team to Washington for five days of recognition and events designed to lift their spirits. Our modest-sized USOC staff (Baaron Pittenger, Jerry Lace, Larry McCollum, Dennis Keegan, Bob Mathias, Bob Paul and myself) and leadership (President Bob Kane, Executive Director F. Don Miller) created the junket so that the athletes, if only for one day, would garner the recognition of the nation.

During that week, there was little talk of the Games going on in Moscow, no live television in the United States, and little in the newspapers of the day. No Americans were allowed in Moscow for the Games, save for a few sport officials who were ordered to leave after the Opening Ceremony on July 19

Not in Washington with us was the US swimming team, which was staging its own meet in order to compare American times to the clocking in Moscow, a form of revenge that was well-meant, but meaningless.

On a hot July 30 morning on the steps of the Capitol, we watched and heard President Carter thank the athletes for their sacrifice, telling them it would be significant in the effort to force the Soviets out of Afghanistan, and to have gone to Moscow would have validated the USSR’s aggression. When Carter departed, the American athletes, one by one, mounted the steps to receive special medals commissioned and paid for by the USOC, from its officers and sport leaders, medals finally in 2007 recognised by the Congress of the United States as Congressional Gold Medals, the highest and most distinguished civilian award of our nation.

Before the medals presentation, the athletes heard emotional presentations from track and field great Madeline Manning Mims and pentathlete Bob Nieman, with emcee Donna de Varona. News reports still exist that President Carter handed out the medals, which is totally untrue. the team had to be convinced to stand when the President appeared that morning, told by then USOC Treasurer William E. Simon, to respect the office, if not the man’s decision to keep them from Moscow.

After a motorcade parade through Washington, the team was hosted at the White House for a barbeque on the South Lawn, capping off a week of special events that included a mammoth outing at Smokey Glen Farm near Gaithersburg, hosted by sponsor Levi Strauss, a nighttime tour of the historic monuments, an evening performance at the Ford Theatre, a special reception at the Smithsonian, a parade and concert at the US Marine Barracks and a special evening at the Kennedy Center with entertainers including Andy Gibb, Patti LaBelle, the Lennon Sisters, Jamie Farr, Irene Cara, and master of ceremonies Leonard Nemoy.

The swimming team came a week later, August 4-6, for its own celebration and parties. When they left Washington, this team, even today denied Olympic team status by the International Olympic Committee and officially unrecognised, feels the pain and bitterness of that boycott.

"There was really a tremendous amount on ineptness in the execution of the boycott," said a noted author of a book on the events, "it reflected both an ignorance of the international sporting structure, the way international sport works and very poor political analysis and judgment by the Carter Administration."

Years later, 1984 Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling gold medalist Jeff Blatnick (pictured), who was on that ’80 team, told a story that startles me even now. He was on an airplane, flying from Bismarck, ND, to Minneapolis and came upon President Carter, seated in the first-class cabin.

"As soon as the plane gets up in the air and levels off, he gets up and starts saying, ‘Hi’ to everybody," recalls Blatnick. "I say to the person next to me, I wonder how this is going to be. He gets to me, I go ‘President Carter, I have met you before, I am an Olympian.’

"He looks at me and says, ‘Were you on the 1980 hockey team?’ I say, ‘No sir, I’m a wrestler, on the summer team.’.

"He says, ‘Oh, that was a bad decision, I’m sorry.’"

The estimable journalist Alan Abrahamson of the Los Angeles Times and Universal Sports, penned this story in 2005, which included another statement about the boycott by former USOC Chairman and 1984 Olympic Games czar Peter Ueberroth.

"Boycotts don’t work. They only hurt athletes. That’s their only value - if people want to call that value. That’s been proven time and time again," said Ueberroth, whose superb ’84 Games had to survive a vengeful boycott by the Soviet Bloc.

IOC President Jacques Rogge, who saw his native Belgium go to Moscow, told Abrahamson: "People have realised that boycotts are not helpful. To the contrary - people who call for a boycott are shooting their own foot."

Tell all this to those 466 athletes who have largely been forgotten over the last three decades. The boycott killed their dreams and ended many of their careers and almost bankrupted the USOC, which had endured the worst of the pressure and nasty political machinations out of Washington while being forced into the boycott. And it almost killed the Olympic Games until Ueberroth and his team staged the ’84 Games without the Soviets and their marionettes and rescued the Movement.

As we transported the 1980 Olympians to the Washington airports, I recall seeing some of the most heart-tugging moments of my long career with the USOC. Tearful farewells by athletes who were denied their biggest dreams, and then they went their ways into the next chapter of their lives. The USOC, even now, has never formally staged an event to recognise this special Olympic team that isn’t, and this would be a good time.

In fact, this team should be in the US Olympic Hall Of Fame as soon as possible. There is a category in the Hall of Fame marked "Contributor",  where this team as a whole, deserves to be enshrined. What Olympic Team in our history contributed more? And, shouldn’t the organisation that bowed to withering political pressure and threats from Washington and stayed home from the most important event of its core mission now find a singular way to honor these men and women?

The IOC should step up and recognise all of the 65 teams that were forced to stay away from Moscow, and somehow show these athletes they meant something for their sacrifice. On October 27, we will induct the noble 1980 U.S. Olympic women’s volleyball team into the Colorado Springs Sports Hall of Fame. This star-crossed team lived and trained in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center in preparation for the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

In addition, this was the first "national team in residence" experiment in Olympic sport in the United States, with all team members, coaches and staff moving to Colorado Springs to live together and train on a full-time basis after finishing fifth at the 1978 World Championships. Its dream was shattered with the Moscow Olympic boycott, but a handful of players remained to win a silver medal at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, losing to China in the gold medal game.

Coached by Dr. Arie Selinger thirty years ago, the team of Janet Baier, Carolyn Becker, Rita Crockett, Patty Dowdell, Laurie Flachmeier, Debbie Green, Flo Hyman, Laurel Brassey, Debbie Landreth, Diane McCormick, Terry Place and Sue Woodstra was considered a favorite to win the volleyball gold medal in Moscow.

So were many other great US  athletes during that long ago summer of 1980, like world gymnastics champion Kurt Thomas, basketball stars Carol Blazejowski, Isiah Thomas and Bill Hanzlik, swimmer Craig Beardsley, and scores of others who will never know what might have been.

Mike Moran was the chief communications officer of the USOC for nearly 25 years before retiring in 2003. In 2002 he was awarded with the USOC's highest award, the General Douglas MacArthur Award. He worked on New York's unsuccessful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and is now director of communications for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation.

Ubiquitous is a word that might have been invented for Sebastian Newbold Coe, aka Baron Coe of Ranmore, Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, whom I have known since he was plain Seb, a 17-year-old fresh-faced , enormously talented young athlete and impecunious student from Sheffield. Now, as footy fans have chanted about every midfield dynamo from Alan Ball through to Joe Cole, via Charlie George and Stevie Gerrard, "he’s here, he’s there, he’s every bloody where."

These past few days it has been impossible to open a newspaper without digesting voluminous interviews with the lord of London’s Olympic rings. As the next 24 months will be among the most momentous in our sporting history it seems only right the man whose omnipresence and oratory was the decisive factor in securing the 2012 Games should have his place in the Sun, and the Mail, Guardian, Mirror, Express, Times, Independent, Telegraph etc al,. not to mention just about every TV channel and radio station. About the only breakfast-time sofa he hasn’t sat on  is Jeremy Kyle’s.

Yet the most astonishing aspect of the blanket coverage given to 2012’s two-year-countdown is that despite the hundreds of thousands of words he has spoken on the subject, he rarely repeats himself. What is remarkable is that he can give so many interviews, speaking in the same precisely measured manner in which he floated so elegantly along the track ,delivering the same upbeat message, yet saying something different virtually every time. He takes care not to repeat himself and always there is a sound-bite which will make a headline or become lodged in the consciousness. He is sport’s consummate salesman. 

I have been reflecting on the 36 years of our friendship, during which he has gone from lad to lord and now overlord, while, observing him at work in a role which seems to be the fulfilment of his destiny. It is one he continues to do brilliantly, with professionalism and panache. "We are bloody lucky to have him, aren’t we?" remarked one senior member of the sporting establishment at the rapidly blossoming  Olympic Park , where Coe wooed the British media he has termed the most forensic in the world .

Yet until some seven years ago Coe was the last person many involved in putting the bid together wanted on board.

In some circles he was perceived as too much of a smooth operator, cocksure, complacent and fired with unrequited political ambition. And a definite threat to those blazers who liked to think they were sport’s  powerbrokers.

So forgive a spot of personal indulgence here. If it were not for a couple of media colleagues and myself Coe might not be where he is today, and we probably would have been making plans to spend the summer of 2012  by the Seine. It was seven years ago, after the confirmation that London would be bidding for the Games under the chairmanship of American Barbara Cassani - a jaw-dropping left field appointment engineered by the then London Mayor, Ken Livingstone – a whole raft of appointments to the bid board were announced by the Department of Culture Media and Sport.

Among them were worthy names like Craig Reedie, Alan Pascoe and  Keith Mills  but there was one glaring omission: Sebastian Coe. 

It was believed at the time that his political affiliation (he had been a somewhat wet Tory MP for Falmouth and William Hague’s chief of staff and judo partner) was not to the liking of the Labour Government. And so strong was his personality it was felt his presence might put a number of noses out of joint.  

It was during the Grand Prix athletics meeting at Crystal Palace that Colin Hart of The Sun, the Daily Mail’s Neil Wilson and I chanced upon Tessa Jowell, the Minister of State who had just persuaded Tony Blair to back the embryo bid. We gave her quite an ear bashing about the omission of one of Britain’s greatest-ever Olympians. Why, we asked, was someone as articulate, well connected and a favourite son of the IOC, being snubbed?

Tessa was clearly taken aback by the force of our argument but to her credit, she listened, promised “I’ll look into it” and shortly afterwards Coe was recruited as a vice-chairman. A few months later Cassani - always a square peg in the Olympic rings - stepped down when it was apparent that the bid was imploding. Coe was the natural choice to take over as chairman; any political and personal prejudices were shoved aside  and, loh and behold, the rest, as they say, is history.

Another black mark against Coe had been that some years before when the British Olympic Association decided to nominate Manchester as a candidate for the 1996 Olympics, Coe had been associated with a group trying to get a rival London bid together. It was felt that this might undermine Manchester’s chances (always slim to none anyway) and the BOA president Princess Anne, in her best "naff orf" mode, peevishly labelled him a "pratley".

Unfazed, Coe said at the time that in his view the only UK city which had any chance of staging an Olympic Games was London.  He wasn’t wrong, was he ma’am?

Amid the hype and hoopla of the two years and counting celebrations another milestone in Coe’s career seems to have been overlooked. This Sunday sees the 30th anniversary of the first of his two Olympic gold medals, both perversely won over 1500 metres and not the 800m that was his signature event. The scenario was to be repeated four years later in Los Angeles but on a balmy evening in  Moscow six days before the 1500m final Coe had been beaten by Steve Ovett over two laps during an era in which their rivalry had been as fiercely and unremittingly combative as that of Ali and Frazier.

When Coe crossed the line he raised his right arm and imperiously thrust his index finger in the direction of the press box. He was to insist later that this was not the "up yours" gesture some thought but merely signified "to certain people" he was number one.   

While his current trademark is diplomacy, Coe has never shied away from controversy.

He has always been the among most media friendly of all British sporting figures and has become one of us, writing regularly for the Daily Telegraph.

I had introduced him to the public prints, getting him to write a column when I was sports editor of The Observer in the nineties and can vouch for the fact that not only did he scribble every word himself, but they were painstakingly polished and always eminently  readable. Mind you I hope he is better at meeting deadlines for the delivery of the Games than he was when submitting his copy!

Just a month short of his 54th birthday Coe seems inexhaustible, rising at dawn most days in the Surrey home he shares with the lady in his life, Carol, daughter of the former England cricket captain Mike Smith. He and ex-Badminton three day event champion Nicky McIrvine, were divorced eight years ago but Coe remains in close touch with their four children. He also insists on staying in touch with the people and happily chats to the Jubilee Line punters when travelling to LOCOG's Canary Wharf. Lord he may be, lord it he doesn’t.

I have always believed that this country would not realise what is about to hit it once the World Cup hysteria was over. Coe himself says that the enormity of the Olympic project and the effect it will have on or lives has yet to fully impact on us. There is a belief among those organising the Games that England’s ignominious exit from football’s World Cup has done 2012the Games a huge favour as the nation now needs something to look forward to that is both positive and uplifting. Knowing Seb as I do, I have no doubt he will triumphantly strike gold two years from now - just as he did 30 years ago.  

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics and 10 Commonealth Games.

So July 27, 2010, has come and gone in a blink of an eye and now we have just one year and 365 days left until the London 2012 Olympic Games begin for real.

The two years to go London 2012 milestone though, was a day of jubilant celebration across the capital.

Surely no-one inhabiting the city, unless they reside at the bottom of the River Thames, could have been unaware that the day marked exactly two years until the world’s greatest sporting extravaganza will grace London for the first time since 1948.

Events in the city, largely organised by the key sponsors of the Games, included: Visa providing 70 of their Team Visa 2012 athletes to join in with the celebrations at the Olympic Park, Panasonic placing a giant screen in Trafalgar Square and BT launching the next stage of the ‘Road to London 2012’ exhibition in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery.

Then there was the Royal Mint has issuing a commemorative ‘2 Years to Go’ coin and, amongst various other goings-on and UPS delivering the stock of Wenlock soft toys to the new London 2012 flagship shop.

It was in fact the new London 2012 flagship shop in St Pancras International Station - opened by no less that London 2012 Chairman Lord Seb Coe and London Mayor Boris Johnson - that was my first port of call on the momentous day.

I turned up at the station shortly ahead of the opening of the shop and was slightly taken aback to see what appeared to be half of the world’s media on the scene with around 500 camera lenses focused on the shop itself.

After recovering my bearings, I managed to secure a decent vantage point to watch proceedings unfold.

Last year's Britain’s Got Talent winners Diversity - an outrageously talented street dance group for those who aren’t familiar with them - began by performing a disappointingly short dance routine before Coe and Johnson marched out to greet the media and shock some of London’s late commuters on their way through the station.

The pair began by speaking of their excitement of reaching the two years to go milestone before launching the search to find 70,000 volunteers for the Games.

Johnson, in his usual flamboyant style, called for an "Olympic Army" of volunteers before he and Coe opened the impressive looking London 2012 shop which, after sidestepping through the crowds of people, I managed to sneak into and have a look around.

The shop featured an impressive array of high quality merchandise including London 2012 pin badges, key rings, mugs, T-shirts and caps.

However, the standout purchase had to be a 30cm soft toy of the official London 2012 mascot Wenlock.

A stuffed toy of Wenlock will set you back £25 but for admirers of the mascot like myself, it will be money well spent - and for you Mandeville fans out there, don’t panic as the official London 2012 Paralympic mascot will be coming to the store on August 29 to mark the two years to go to the Paralympic Games milestone.

While it was extremely hectic around the shop, it was perhaps understandable because of the key figures in attendance. As well as Coe and Johnson, there was Sports and Olympic Hugh Robertson, London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chairman John Armitt, International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Sir Craig Reedie, British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Andy Hunt and former 400 metre hurdle star and 1992 Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell.

Following the opening of the London 2012 shop, I joined the distinguished figures mentioned and the rest of the media onboard the Olympic Javelin Train.

The train will be a central part of plans in 2012 to provide transport services for the potential 800,000 spectators per day expected to attend the London Olympics. In 2012, a frequent Javelin train will run from King’s Cross station to the Stratford International in seven minutes, carrying up to 25,000 passengers per hour to the Olympic Park while there are plans to carry up to 1,200 passengers on each journey.

To me, the Javelin didn’t feel much different to the average Southeastern railways train but it was undeniably a pleasant and smooth seven minute ride to the Olympic Park.

Once at the site, we boarded buses for a tour of the venues and for some strange reason, I was allocated to board bus "one" where two of my travelling companions were misters Coe and Armitt.

It was rather nice having the ODA chairman on the microphone as my tour guide of the Olympic Park and after driving through the ‘cosy’ looking Athletes' Village, we pulled up at the Velodrome which to me looked well on its way to completion.

Once inside the Velodrome, four-time cycling gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy welcomed us by cycling around the track for the very first time and was greeted with cheers with the on looking workers. That noise soon reached a deafening pitch as the Mayor of London, who was clearly no longer able to resist the temptation; climbed onboard the bike for a lap of the Velodrome that was less steady than the one conducted by the Scotsman.



We then moved steadily over to a large, white, square arena on the Park which will host both basketball and handball during the Games. On hand at the arena was British former NBA star John Amaechi and popular Athens 2004 wheelchair basketball Paralympic bronze medallist Ade Adepitan who showed their skills by shooting the first hoops in the venue.

We swiftly departed the arena to visit the main spectator bridge in the Olympic Park which gave a mightily impressive view of the Park.

The bridge will be the ‘front door’ to the Olympic Park in 2012 and no doubt one of the highlights for visiting spectators. It was immensely enjoyable to walk across the bridge and although the heavens opened and the rain came crashing down just as I began my stroll (which is surely a prelude to what will happen in two years time) it did not ruin the experience in the slightest.

Then came the most exciting part of the day; walking to the end of bridge and right into the Olympic Stadium itself. As I did so, I got a spine tingling sensation of what it would be like to be one of the thousands approaching the Stadium in two years time and the closer I got, the more impressive the Stadium looked.

Walking into the Stadium for the very first time is an experience I will not soon forget. The stadium, which like the other sporting venues on the Park is due to be completed within a year, looks very much on track to hit that target and I was immediately struck by how close the seats were to the field of play. It was rather surreal to be standing in the exact spot where Usain Bolt or Jessica Ennis could well be making history in 2012 and I know that with 80,000 people packed into the compact venue, the Stadium will be a very special place to be in 2012.

Inside the stadium, we were treated to multi-Olympic gold medallist Michael Johnson running with school children at a leisurely pace on a specially laid track before we were escorted out of the Olympic Park.

Following the tour, I made my way to Trafalgar Square to see the magnificent Panasonic screen in the heart of the famous landmark which displayed invigorating clips to promote the London 2012 Games. Deighton, Hunt and mascot Wenlock where just some of the figures who also arrived at Trafalgar Square and Deighton made a speech to the crowd before the momentous day drew to a close.

Overall, my reflections of the day were very positive. Everything I had seen in the Olympic Park and all the senior London 2012 figures I had spoken to had convinced me that London is well on track to host a magnificent Games in 2012.

The key venues certainly have that iconic factor required for a successful Olympics and every venue in the Olympic Park is within easy walking distance of any other which is a great feature.

Undoubtedly, problems arise regarding the London 2012 when costs are mentioned.

In a time of economic uncertainty, the £9.28 billion the Games will cost to stage will be looked at closely by the new Government and the fight is definitely on to stop the money set aside from the Games being decreased.

London 2012 organisers have done well to cut costs so far but any further cuts could be catastrophic for the Games and may actually mean that more money will have to be pumped into the project as July 27, 2012 gets closer.

There are even some out there who have no interest in the London 2012 Games and continually criticise how much money is being spent on ‘a month long party.

But I was one of the ones who cheered when London won the bid to host the Games in Singapore in 2005 and though no one could have predicted the recession that would follow; my optimism has not dwindled.

Polls reveal many Londoners are now more confident about the Games than they were when we first won the right to host them in 2005 and I am certainly one of them.

Maybe my day of VIP access around the Park was designed to make me think as much but I truly believe that London will be one of the most successful and memorable Games ever.

But I also thought that England would win the World Cup this year; so I have been wrong before. I don't expect to be this time, though.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames

PIctures by Mike King. See more great photographs from yesterday's celebration by clicking here