As Britain's modern pentathletes get into their stride in the World Cup series, the man who has masterminded the team's fortunes since 1998, Performance Director Jan Bartu, is coming to terms with the controversial introduction of lasers for the shooting element, although he believes it will cause a radical shift in the balance of the overall event.

Modern pentathlon has endured numerous changes since being introduced to the Olympics at the 1912 Stockholm Games, including reduction from a four or five day event into a one-day event in 1996.

But the gap between the 2008 Beijing Games and the forthcoming Olympics in London has seen not one but two further changes in this traditional sport. In 2009, the final shooting and running elements were combined, and last year the sport's world governing body, the Union International de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM) decided, amidst considerable confusion, to replace air pistols with lasers in time for the London 2012 Games, with this year's World Cup series marking the innovation's international debut.

Bartu believes the practice which has evolved in competition over the last couple of years, where athletes who excel at the run/shoot discipline have relied on making up huge amounts of ground in the closing stages, will no longer work because the laser shooting takes significantly less time and it will be harder to gain ground on opponents during this stage.

"The top athletes will hit their five targets in, let's say, 12 15, 16 seconds," Bartu said as he supervised final preparations at the sport's University of Bath base for the second World Cup event in Italy. "It's almost 15, 20 seconds less than before. That's a 50 per cent reduction of time spent on the range.

"You actually get a competition much closer. And there won't be massive changes with athletes coming from way back up to the top in the run/shoot phase, as it happened with the combined event in the beginning, when you would see athletes coming through to the top of the field from 18 or 20th place.

"Top athletes can transfer their shooting skills into a much faster rhythm, so they are actually speeding up, and so the whole field will be 20 seconds shooting. Before it was 20 seconds up to a minute, but I don't think this is going to be the case now.

"Because you need to position yourself near the top of the field. You can't believe that an excellent combined event will get you through. You have got to be there with the top athletes, head to head. You need to be up there after three events if you want to win a medal. I have no hard core evidence to what I am saying, but that's my thinking."

And that effect, Bartu believes, will ripple back through the competition, with increasing emphasis now needing to be laid on the technical disciplines of fencing and equestrianism.

"It somehow slipped from the radar of many coaches, especially the equestrian phase," he said. "You would think 'OK, I get through this, and I'm great in the combined event, so I can knock 30, 40 seconds from the other people's times, I will move up no matter what. But now you can't expect to be clawing it back from way back."

Although Bartu was dismayed by the confused introduction of the laser shooting, he was relieved at the way in which British pentathletes coped with the change at the opening World Cup in Palm Springs at the end of February.

"We didn't actually practise with the laser," he said. "We didn't have any equipment before Palm Springs, like many others.

"So the athletes went out there almost shooting blind. What came back to me was a complete surprise in a positive way. They adapted to it so quickly. And obviously I feel much more optimistic now.

"But was I nervous? Absolutely. I didn't know what to expect. It could have gone either way. But it makes them stronger now, because if we have done this before proper training, what will we do when we actually get to practise with it?"


For a man who has managed the British team effort meticulously for 13 years, such hasty changes were challenging to say the least.

"It's a classic top-down decision," he said. "It's an ideal which has been politically justified. I don't want to go into the international governing body politics because it is unexplainable.

"We have been constantly reminded: 'trust us, trust us, this is the way forward for the sport. Here we come, 21st century, it will get us into the consciousness of all the IOC people and it has the potential to secure modern pentathlon in the Olympics beyond 2016.'

"But I changed my mind, I'm telling you. In the beginning I could not associate myself with it, it was understandable, because I have spent all my life in this sport, I come from a really classic upbringing, shooting with the full automatic rapid gun. Going to air pistol was difficult, and now going to this, it's like taking something away from you.

"But I have to be realistic. If this is going to work it really can make a massive difference and I can see now the point for actually doing it so fast. Because we said that this is it, we go with it, we embrace it, we have to make it work.

"And as a British pentathlete, and one of the strongest nations in the sport, running Olympic qualifiers this year, running Olympic Games next year, is an obligation.

"I can see now the bigger picture. Worldwide, if it works and we make it work in the Games, as we will, no doubt, who knows what the future holds? Maybe even for shooting disciplines?"

Combine shoot and run? OK. Oh, and shooting with lasers? Check.

With the best will in the world, modern pentathletes must be wondering what is coming up next. A combining of the equestrian and fencing elements perhaps, to create televisually rewarding combat scenes for the younger viewer?

Sam Weale, who has hopes of using his experience of the 2008 Beijing Games to reach the podium four years on, has clearly had his own imaginative thoughts on the topic, which he was happy to share as he sat in the busy café within the sports complex at the University of Bath, British Pentathlon's HQ.

"Perhaps we could be running around shooting at each other next, like laser quest," he suggested with a grin. "Where does it end?"

Like most of his peers, Weale, who is aiming for one of the two London 2012 spots for the men's team, is working hard to take the changes aboard, although he believes the latest innovation in the shooting has been unduly hasty.

"It's been introduced very quickly - too quickly," he says. "To be honest it's not too fair on the athletes having two changes in an Olympic period.

"You've got to accept it and get on with it. But it's just amateur in a way to introduce laser shooting at the first World Cup of the season – and the guns were given to people a day before competition. I mean that's just embarrassing. That was an Olympic qualifying competition. And it is a bit of a risk to introduce new technology into a sport which hasn't been tested.

"You'd think they can't make too many more changes, but you never know. They have to go with the times I guess.

It's a very traditional sport, so I suppose if this latest change does make it more accessible to people then, fantastic. But first of all they need to reduce the cost of the guns, because at the moment it's costing €500 (£440/$728) for the adaption of the guns and they will cost you €800-1,000 (£705/$1,165-£882/$1,456) in the first place. And the target will cost you €200 (£176/$291).

"Whereas you can go down to your local gun shop and pick up a gun for £100 ($165) and a target for 5p ($0.08) or something and a box of pellets for £2 ($3).

"So in total that's costing you a lot of money, and that's costing your federation down the road, and you have to go along with this. The poorer nations have probably been struggling with this. Is that making it more accessible to everyone? I don't know...

"They tried to use the environmental argument and say it's saving lead, but I'm not too sure on that one either. How many pentathletes are there in the world and how many tons of lead will this end up saving?"

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 media impact of sport is such that today, sport is much more than the game itself. With substantial investment from political actors, its diplomatic impact and its geopolitical repercussions can be monumental.

At the end of last month, close to a billion people witnessed the desire  for reconciliation expressed by India and Pakistan on a playing field. The cricket World Cup is one of the most eagerly awaited, highly followed and most celebrated sports events on the Indian sub-continent.

The semi-final match between the two countries provided the opportunity for a historic meeting between the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan.

They went to the field ahead of the game, then after the eight-hour competition they had dinner together and made press statements calling people to take this opportunity to consolidate the rapprochement and consider a "permanent reconciliation".

The strong symbolic significance of the event is due to the political context in which it took place, linked to tensions arising from the Mumbai bombings of 2008. Lately, however, the fact that the two capitals have been abandoned by Washington has led them to reconsider bilateral relationship-building. Using this high-profile event, which was the focus of world media, is confirmation of the plan to forge closer relations, and lets us hope that the message conveyed at the highest political level will also spread through the ranks.

Like cricket diplomacy, we have seen ping-pong diplomacy between China and the United States since the 70's, and football diplomacy, recently illustrated by meetings between Turkey and Armenia during the qualifying matches for the World Cup 2010. Sports diplomacy covers all sports in all regions of the world. It is an expression of "soft power" to facilitate rapprochement between two countries that are opposed. Sport, like culture, heritage and business, is a vehicle for this "soft power", a tool for influence and persuasion which States are increasingly using to improve their relations.

The unparalleled visibility of sport and its impact on people makes it a perfect pretext for diffusing political messages. This symbolic gesture by the two countries publicly confirmed the reconciliation that has been planned for some time. The match was thus used as a sounding board for shared political intentions. Only tangible progress will enable us to assess the real reach of the event; however, by this display, the two ministers firmly committed to their responsibilities before public opinion in their own countries and those around the world.

But let's not delude ourselves by imagining that we can wave a magic wand that will solve the conflict between India and Pakistan. Sport is one diplomatic tool among many others; it is not sufficient in itself to achieve a political revolution. This needs to be done through many other areas.

So, retrospectively this event will only be meaningful if it helps to build sustainable bridges between the two communities. Cricket diplomacy is not new, and up until now its long-term effects have not been clearly visible once the event is out of the spotlight. Back in 2005, in a context just as delicate, Pervez Musharraf visited the Indian capital for a similar meeting between the two countries, which was also described as historic.

We hope that this time the political momentum is sustainable and we will closely follow the consequences of this high-level diplomatic rapprochement. But diplomacy has its own autonomous logic, and it is often not enough to remove deep-rooted bitterness and violence at the heart of communities. Peace "at the grassroots level" is at least as important as at the top elite level. So to consolidate this political goodwill expressed through sport, we must consider this event as the starting point for a pragmatic initiative that consists of using sport as a tool for reconciliation on a local level in trans-border regions and areas of tension.


Who should take advantage of this opportunity? Politicians of course; but also and above all the sports movement, which can be essential stimulus for peace-building and peace-promotion activities in the context of its work to spread the practice of sport. Sports institutions and associations have an existing operational capacity which enables them to extend political processes.

We have to grasp the signal sent by political authorities to assess what sport can do on a community level. It will mean involving the powerful force that the international federations constitute; by associating with local intermediaries and collaborating with national institutions from two countries, federations can envisage synergetic programs for action.

No, sport will not definitively stop tensions, but on its own level it can bring understanding between hostile communities, particularly in the Kashmir border region. Cricket is the number one sport on both sides of the border; furthermore it's an ideal choice because it imparts the values of fair play taught by British gentlemen at the time of the Indian Empire. These intrinsic qualities make cricket a vehicle for propagating values beyond the sporting context.

Athletes, who are impartial and respected figures, must also get involved in this process. In the eyes of the people, they are essential actors who have the ability to transmit daily messages of peace and respect at the community level. Some sports champions have not hesitated to take initiatives that deserve to be congratulated: for example two tennis players, one from India and the other from Pakistan, one Hindu the other Muslim, who rallied support from the international sports community by teaming up for Wimbledon and the last US Tennis Open to launch a media campaign to encourage understanding between their two countries. Their combat deserves to be encouraged to intensify the hope that today seems to be emerging in the Indian subcontinent.

Sports diplomacy is a tool that may turn out to be short-term. It requires actors from the world of sport to take responsibility.

Joel Bouzou is the founder and President of "Peace and Sport, L'Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport". An elite modern pentathlete, Bouzou competed in four Olympic Games, including winning a bronze medal at Los Angeles in 1984. He won the World Championship in 1987 and was later secretary general of the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM). To find out more about Peace and Sport click here. 

It wasn't that long ago that I had agreed to go along to a media white water rafting session Lee Valley White Water Centre - the only brand new London 2012 venue to open to the public ahead of the Games.

However, I had not given too much thought to the event so on my journey to the venue, I decided to have a quick scan over the itinerary I had been sent.

Other than the usual directions of how to get the venue and the fact that you needed to be confident in open water, it all seemed pretty basic stuff until one line jumped out at me.

It said: "Please take the time to read our Terms and Conditions and Safety for Water Users Leaflet. You will be asked to sign a declaration on the day that you have read these documents."

Having been unaware that either of these documents even existed, I began to feel a little worried. However, I calmed down as I reassured myself that I was a fully capable swimmer and that it would be very bad press for the good people at the Lee Valley White Water Centre to let me get seriously injured or drown just days before the venue opens to the public.

I had been to the venue once before to see the Princess Royal officially open the course at the end of last year but as I turned up for the second time on a sunny morning, I was reminded of just what a stunning location it was.

The water is crystal clear, the backdrop is a stunning green due to the surrounding tress and there is almost no noise other than the running water.

However, the first time I had arrived, I had done so without the intention of rafting on it and as I began to get closer to the main part of the course, I started to feel distinctly uneasy once again.

I didn't remember how steep the drops were on my first visit - or maybe I just hadn't cared - and as I started to think about it, I reached the seemingly obvious conclusion that any course designed specifically for an Olympic Games is bound to be rather difficult.

In fact, the Lee Valley White Water Centre has already been hailed as one of the best and most challenging in the world and at the weekend was selected to stage the prestigious 2015 International Canoe Federation (ICF) Canoe Slalom World Championships which will be the first major post Games championship for any London 2012 venue.

I was not put at further ease by the facts I was handed as I arrived.

Over 13,000 litres of water a second powers down course, enough to fill 75 bath tubs every second or an Olympic sized swimming pool in just over three minutes.

There are also five extremely powerful water pumps, each weighing five tonnes or the same weight as a fully grown elephant.

With these highly uncomforting thoughts in my head, I headed down to the immaculate changing rooms and was handed my wetsuit.

It took a long while to squeeze into the skin-tight wetsuit, which leaves very little to the imagination, and had I know it would be so fitted, I would have probably done a few press ups before I got there.

However, there was little time to worry about that as I was handed my helmet, my lifejacket and along with five other media colleagues, sent to our instructor for the ride - Bob.

Bob was an extremely nice guy but not someone that I would want to hear delivering a speech in a crisis as you will soon see.

"Right guys," Bob said, "I'm going to need you to sign this form to make sure you have read all the safety documents in case you get badly injured or worse and you're also going to have to listen to me carefully as we go along.

"Make sure your hand is over the end of your ore so you don't hit the chap next to you and knock him out and when we are in trouble; hold on to the rope outside for dear life because that is you best friend.

"And if you remember nothing else, remember that if you fall out, don't try and put your feet down as you will get seriously injured.

"Just put your feet facing forward on top of the water and let the currant take you down however much you get the urge to panic."


With those pleasant words, we set off.

It was an extremely pleasant sensation as we set off in the calm warm up area until Bob said we needed to practice capsizing the raft to learn what happens before we got onto the main course.

"If you get stuck under the raft, there will be a little bit of air in there but you have to get out as quick as possible," Bob said in a manner I was becoming quickly accustomed to.

We hurled ourselves over and the icy water hit with such force that I temporarily forgot where I was.

Fortunately, I wasn't under the raft and so I climbed back on shivering as we started off again.

Luckily, the sun quickly warmed me up but I didn't have too much time to rejoice as it was then that were made our move to the ramp that takes you to the Olympic Course itself.

The ramp is very much like the start of a rollercoaster that takes you very slowly upwards towards your fast, steep and inevitable drop.

But suddenly, halfway up the ramp, I realised I had a major problem.

The strap holding my foot in place had broken and therefore I had nothing tangible keeping me in the raft.

"Bob," I shouted, "My foot strap has broken."

"Okay, well hold on tight to the rope and we'll fix it at the end," he replied.

I didn't have long to digest his ridiculously unhelpful advice before we hit the drop at the top of the course and went headfirst into a huge wave.

As I was looking for the rope, I had not anticipated the wave at all and I ended up swallowing nearly half of it.

Coughing and spluttering, I had barely recovered before I was met with the second steep drop in less than two seconds.

Such was the force that my oar came back and hit me straight in the face, cutting open my bottom lip.

Determined to recover from my diabolic start to the Olympic race course, I powered hard into the third wave and despite nearly being dislodged from my seat, I was physically unharmed.

I was slowly starting to get the hang of going into waves and predicting the right way to lean when our raft hit one of the blocks and turned us backwards.

We were now powerless and thing didn't get much better as I heard Bob yell from the back of the raft: "Get down!"

Less than a second later, I knew just why he had shouted as we plummeted backwards off what was around a six foot drop.

It certainly took my breath away for a few seconds but it was actually quite fun.

Having tackled the course in probably the slowest time in history, we were given another run at it and began to enjoy ourselves.

The waves were still enormous and the currants extremely fast but it was nothing if not exhilarating.

All too quickly, our two hour session was up as we headed back to the changing rooms.

I headed straight for a warm shower feeling tired, injured, a little nauseous but delighted to have taken on the London 2012 Olympic course.

The Centre opens to the public on to the public this Friday (April 22) and I would urge every adrenaline junkie out there to have a go.

It is like a great theme park ride only more chaotic, more unpredictable and actually a great physical work out - which explained why all the Olympic canoeists in attendance were in such great shape and able to make the wetsuit look far better than I did.

For me, the venue made me realise that the whole point of the London 2012 Games is to have a sporting legacy in place for the future and to have such an amazing facility that will be in place long after London 2012 is over is certainly something to point to in order to silence the remaining critics of the Games.

During the London 2012 Olympics, the Lee Valley White Water Centre will host five days of thrilling canoe slalom competition that will see the world's best athletes compete in front of 60,000 spectators.

But to get on the course ahead of the Olympians themselves, tickets are available from £49 ($80) by clicking here.

If you have the stomach for it, you'll have a great day out.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames 

The Embankment. Then Westminster. And pavements thronged with thousands assembled in a common cause.

It took me back eight years to the last occasion I had been in the capital as a part of something huge – the march against the Iraq war. Only this time there was the possibility of a result.

While February 15, 2003, had been cold and rainy, April 17, 2011, was less cloudy and hotter than forecast, with temperatures reaching towards 20C.

For everybody striving around me, many of them now walking towards the promised land of The Mall, the glaring heat, omnipresent as the noise of 26 and a bit miles of moving support, was the overwhelming preoccupation. That, and the legs threatening mutiny below.

"Look at him," one runner said to me as we emerged from the Blackfriars underpass. "He doesn't even realise."

Slightly ahead of us, a young man with an iPod was weaving in exhaustion, his sodden black shorts sagging down almost to his thighs.

If this was an unwitting exhibitionist, many others involved in the 2011 Virgin London Marathon were nothing if not witting.

Earlier in the race I had seen a runner calling himself Cheeky, running in shorts that appeared to have been cut out to expose a (fake) bare backside.

Somewhere on the Greenwich stretch I was as aghast as a group of elderly ladies at the roadside to see an older gentleman pass me wearing nothing but a black mankini and a jet black Borat wig perched on top of his white hair. Was he raising funds for Kazakhstan? Or was he merely an astounding show-off?

Further along the road I passed Jimmy Savile, that is, someone impersonating Jimmy Savile, and doing it very well, puffing occasionally on a gigantic fake cigar and then performing the familiar, crouching double thumbs-up sign. He went down a storm...

After 20 years of observing it from the pampered confines of the press room, I wanted a proper experience of the great event established by Chris Brasher and John Disley back in 1981.

And I tried to do so in the memory of my former friend and colleague Cliff Temple, the former Sunday Times athletics correspondent – to pin a title on a lovely man and a lovely writer – who died in tragic circumstances in 1994.

As someone who had coached athletes to Olympic finals, and also, in the case of Mike Gratton, to a London Marathon title, Cliff would have been thrilled by the quality of Emmanuel Mutai's record-breaking run, and of his Kenyan compatriot Mary Keitany's flourishing victory in the women's event.

And the playful side of Cliff, who was also a talented comedy writer, would have revelled in the quirky individuals further back down the field. And the compassionate side of Cliff would have been moved by the instances of individual courage en route.

How do you run for someone? It's an odd notion. You think about them when you are training. You think about them when you are running. I suppose that's it.

All I know is that, on the day, when I put my shirt back on having written the words "For Cliff" on the back of it, I felt a difference.

It would be nice to report that I subsequently ran a supercharged race and surpassed my target of a 3hour 59min 59sec marathon with ease. I didn't. I managed 4:09.

It felt like not quite getting a 2:1. But the beauty of this event is that there is the possibility of a re-take just around the year's end.

By 22 miles I had got to the point where I was missing mile markers. The sight of my eldest daughter in the crowd almost made me cry.

It was certainly novel to glance up at Buckingham Palace as I approached the close of the race. At that point in my long runs I am normally passing the Three Tuns pub in London Road.


But all the transcendent things that are said to occur at the actual finish line transcended me.

To be truthful, I wasn't even sure where the finish line was, almost stopping after passing through what turned out to be the penultimate red and white arch, a few hundred metres from the line.

And my predominant concern, I confess, was small and selfish - to get as close to four hours as I could.

Passing through the post-race area, where the process of chip untagging, goody bag giving and medal awarding occurred with all the efficiency I had been led to expect, I heard the runner immediately behind me say to the lady bestowing the awards: "I don't think I've ever worked so hard for something."

Therein lies the satisfaction of the marathon.

And if targets were easy, everybody would always reach them. Therein lies the lure of the marathon.

The day had offered an unexpected bonus in that I had found myself, briefly, on tour with the Banana Army – the yellow-shirted TV Times celebrity running team who raise funds for Leukaemia & Lymphoma research.

After hitching a lift on their coach to the Green Start I was kindly invited by the charity organiser Ken Lomas - a former TV Times advertising director who lost his daughter, Karen, to leukaemia in 1986 -  to join the assembled crew in the room they had reserved at a hotel bordering Blackheath.

There the screen stars of Emmerdale and Coronation Street et al exchanged banter as they kneeled on the floor in a circle and inscribed names and messages on their trademark yellow shirts.

The fact that I don't watch either soap, or any soaps, probably muted the impact of all this proximity. Nicola, whoever you are, you're very nice.

A couple of faces I did recognise, however. Tony Audenshaw – "best known for his role as the Woolpack's amorous barman Bob Hope" – was busy dressing himself up as a fairy before setting out into the rising heat outside.

Audenshaw, a seriously good runner, was apparently desperate to crack three hours. It wasn't to be on this occasion.

Another familiar figure was that of Chris Chittell, aka Emmerdale's resident crook, Eric Pollard.

Had I been more au fait, I might have asked how Eric was faring after the turbulent events of the last 25 years, during which time he has survived a plane crash which killed his first wife, shrugged off rumours of her murder, married a mail-order bride from the Philippines, been talked out of torching himself and his failed wine bar business, married for a third time before spending his Wedding Night with another councillor in a bid to be elected as Mayor, come to terms with the fact that his latest wife has run off with all his money, and to the fact that he is David's biological father, and then suffered a drunken fall down the stairs of his B&B.

In the event we shook hands and wished each other a good race.

"Have you done many of these?" I asked. "A few," he said. "I had given it up. But then I thought: 'Why let the youngsters have all the fun?'"

After a team picture on Blackheath, the Banana Army fanned out across the park towards the start of another marathon fundraising effort.

One of the founding principles of the London Marathon was "to show mankind that, on occasions, the Family of Man can be united."

Once again, tick that box.

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. He was running for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. If you would like to donate click here. 

At the British Swimming Championship in Manchester a few weeks ago I was really pleased to secure my qualifying time for the European Championships in June. It's a case of waiting and seeing now which team will head to Berlin for the tournament but I would really hope to be taking part.

Ahead of Sheffield I've been in heavy weights training, and I've been taking antibiotics for an illness but I was still looking to race hard over the weekend and use the event as a training aid. The meet for me was more about race practice and posting a good time than setting a personal best and I definitely put my body under pressure and had to "race tough". I still swam under the European championships qualifying time in both the heat and the final it was just a lot more painful experience than in Manchester 3 weeks ago but I'm pleased with how the meet went overall.

The British International Disability Championships is one of the best attended events in the disability swimming calendar, so it's always an event I enjoy. It's particularly good to get the opportunity to get some of the other big nations such as Brazil and Germany coming over.

Between now and the European Championships I'll be competing in the BT Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in May. I'll be on the way back from a hard training camp in Majorca the week beforehand but I'm hoping that it'll give me some "solar power" to medal at the event! It's not often that I compete at a multi-sport event so it would be great to try and catch some of the other events such as the athletics and wheelchair basketball.

Over the last few years the event has widened coverage of Paralympic sport in the media, and with this year's BT Paralympic World Cup being broadcast on Channel 4 I think it will really help to reach new audiences.

I've got a busy schedule between now and London 2012, and I'm going to be recording my journey to the Games through a new BT campaign that will bring together all sorts of stories between now and 2012 and beyond.


The campaign is looking for people from all walks of life to tweet, photograph, film and blog about their experiences of London 2012, or to use the Games as the inspiration for their creativity. As well as athletes and people involved in the Games they're asking members of the public to apply to become Storytellers at www.bt.com/london2012. I think it'll produce some fantastic stories – everyone has such different experiences of the Games and it'll be interested to see how this is captured by the public.

It's now less than 500 days until the start of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and as a BT ambassador I was delighted to be invited to their celebratory 500 days event at the BT Tower a few weeks ago. It was great to catch up with the other BT ambassadors like Lee Pearson and Dame Kelly Holmes, as well as other Olympic and Paralympic faces such as Rebecca Adlington, who launched the stunning fireworks display.  Then, a couple of days ago, I was invited to place the last tiles on the pool at the Olympic Park Aquatics Centre.  It was amazing to see first-hand where I hope to be competing in 2012.  It's a fantastic venue and competing in front of thousands of fans there is an opportunity that I'd relish.

I'm not really nervous about the fact that it's 500 days to go – it's a good point as the Games are close enough to start getting excited about, but far away enough that I know that I have enough time to plan properly for them. I'm in a good place with my training and preparation and I know, that when the time comes, I'll be ready to compete and perform at my best. It's nice to see the public start to get excited about the Games though, and I think that will only continue to increase as we get closer.

Liz Johnson is a BT Ambassador.  BT is the official communications services partner for London 2012 and has launched its search for creative members of the public to become the Storytellers of the London 2012 Games. For info and to apply click here

Today marks exactly 500 days to go until the start of the London 2012 Paralympic Games – an important milestone in our countdown to London 2012. It's fantastic to think that in 500 days, we'll be hosting the world's second largest sporting event and that over 4,000 athletes from around the world will be coming to London for the greatest show on earth.

It seems like only yesterday we were reaching the 1,000 days to go milestone and since then, so much has happened in terms of the planning and preparation for the Paralympic Games. And as we face the next 500 days, we're moving into an operational and delivery phase, with lots of fantastic activity planned for the next six months.

We recently announced that for the first time ever, London will host International Paralympic Day on September 8 in Trafalgar Square, one of the most iconic locations in our capital. We'll be giving the public a chance to learn more about Paralympic sport and experience first-hand the inspiration and excitement of Paralympic athletes. I'd urge everyone to come along on the day - not only will you have the chance to meet and join UK and international Paralympians, but you may also discover and get hooked on a brand new sport which you hadn't come across before.

Tickets for the Paralympic Games will go on sale on 9 September. We'll be announcing more information shortly but we have a range of exciting initiatives planned to give sports fans an opportunity to see as much Paralympic sport as possible.

And in May this year, the BT Paralympic World Cup will start and it will be a fantastic showcase of elite sport including athletics, smming and wheelchair basketball. People attending the Paralympic World Cup can look forward to seeing athletes like Oscar Pistorius.


Not only will all these events give people a real opportunity to get involved with and be inspired by the Paralympic Games, but it will give them a taster of what they can expect from the August 29 when the Paralympic Games will begin.

We have a real opportunity with the Paralympic Games to help change people's perceptions about disability and also inspire people to get into disability sport. Research from The Nielsen Company shows that there is a real public appetite for the Paralympic Games, with one in three people wanting to know more about Paralympic sport and Paralympians. There is also a strong belief that the London 2012 Paralympic Games will inspire the general public, with one in two people agreeing that the Games will show the world how to treat disabled people with respect and equality, and four in ten believing the Games can bring about a breakthrough in the way disabled people are perceived in the UK.

I'm looking forward to working with the Government, our stakeholders and our partners to make this happen and ensure that the London 2012 Paralympic Games are the best possible.

In 500 days time, people will have the chance to see some outstanding sport and elite athletes competing at the highest level possible. And given what ParalympicsGB has achieved to date at previous Games - 102 medals in Beijing alone, almost half of these Gold medals - I know that they will achieve even greater success on a home soil, with London and the rest of the UK completely behind them, cheering them on. I, for one, can't wait for the Paralympic Games to start.

Sebastian Coe is the chairman of London 2012

Alan Campbell will take to the relatively unfamiliar waters of the Olympic course at Eton Dorney this weekend with a relatively familiar task. This proud product of Coleraine needs to win the Senior Trials in his single scull, again, just as he has in the last six years, if he is to maintain momentum towards his heart's desire: a gold medal on the same course next year.

At 27, Campbell has established himself as one of the world's best scullers, taking bronze at last year's World Championships in New Zealand behind the two men who remain plumb centre of his sights as he prepares for what he hopes will be the biggest race of his life on the same stretch of water.

Ondrej Synek, the winner on Lake Karapiro, and home sculler Mahe Drysdale were the two who finished ahead of the Irishman, and with reigning Olympic champion Olaf Tufte they are the main men Campbell envisages taking on, and overcoming, over the final 500 metres of the Eton Dorney course on that appointed day. Not that they are the only threat by any means.

"It will be a really competitive field," Campbell said as he prepared earlier this week. "But I definitely believe in myself, and I believe I've got what it takes to win that gold medal. It will come down to who really wants it the most in that final.

"We will all have sculled 36,000 kilometres, and done 800 hours of weight training, 400 hours of cross training and a huge amount of other work.

"For every second we race in the final it will be over 10 hours of training, and for the first 1500m it will come down to all that training, but for the last quarter, when your lungs are burning and it feels as if red hot pokers are being pushed down them and you can feel the veins around your teeth bulging, it will come down to who can delve down into their heart and soul the most."

At 6ft 3in and 15 stone, Campbell, who managed to finish fifth in the last Olympic final despite having had a knee infection requiring an operation on the eve of the Beijing Games so severe that one doctor told him he would not even be walking in time for the final, is hardly a weakling.

And the rigorous routine set by his coach Bill Barry, a former sculler who took silver in the fours at the 1964 Olympics, which involves him lugging around tractor tyres, sawing huge logs and running up sand hills, has hardened his body to match his resolve.

But even Campbell has to acknowledge the physical power of Synek, who is two inches taller. As the Irishman puts it: "He's a bit of a unit, so he is."

Being a terrifying physical specimen, however, is not the be all and end all in this sport, and particularly in sculling, where technique has such a bearing.

Campbell says every possible angle is being looked at by the British team to optimise his performance in the boat.


"We've got computers on the boat trying to work out if we can make up any margins," he said. "We are looking at different things like redesigning the blades so we could gain maybe three and a half metres over the course of 2,000. The small things add up, so we are working on all aspects.

"And I definitely feel the boat is moving better than ever. I've done a number of pbs already this year in the gym, so now the hope is that I will be transferring those pbs to the water this year."

But before Campbell can get too caught up in future calculations, he knows he needs to go through some more domestic strife as rival scullers of the calibre of Matt Wells, world silver medallist in the double scull, and the up-and-coming Brendan Crean.

"I have to watch my back the whole time," he said. "The other guys are out to get me. The trials are some of the least enjoyable races I do each year. I haven't really got the option of finishing anywhere other than first."

Apart from Campbell's contribution, there were eight other medals contributed by British rowers at last year's worlds, four of them gold. Not bad, post Redgrave, post Pinsent, post Cracknell...

"British rowing has really come into its own," Campbell added.

"We had a lot of really top individuals, like Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent, and it wasn't the case that we relied on them but they were real standout athletes.

"People wondered what would happen when they finished. But what has happened is they've inspired a whole new generation of rowers and it's the strongest team we've ever had.

"It was the best performance at a World Championships and that's a huge amount of momentum to carry with us going into the Olympics.

"I know even those who won are treating it as if they came second in the gym. They're hungry to maintain that gold standard.

"There's a good amount of confidence; we should be confident, but people are doing it in the right way. Nobody is getting complacent."

He is evidence of that. But the intensity of his ambition is astonishing.

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

Palma was a great week, a good result and also the perfect chance to test the kit and my fitness in a range of conditions.

The first day was big, (30 knots/34 miles per hour) it certainly blew away the cobwebs! I hadn't sailed the Finn in those conditions for a long time, maybe even three years, so a fifth and fourth place was an okay start but certainly some improvements are needed in these conditions.

Some are questioning that the event might have had a different outcome if the winds had been stronger. It will be interesting to see how things go with consistently heavier conditions.

Guys like Giles Scott, Ed Wright and the Finnish sailor Tapio Nirkko all showed great speed on the first day.

It's certainly an area I'm working hard on in order to make improvements with the set up of the boat.

We had pretty varied conditions for the rest of the week, 8-12 knots, which meant the free pumping rule came in to play.

Palma had waves compared to flat water regattas like Miami, this meant good technique and being smart was just as important as brute strength and endurance. In terms of gauging how I'm doing in a range of conditions - it was a fantastic event.

I've been luckily to have my own team out in Palma for the past three months, working hard with my coach Sid (David Howlett) and training partner Mark (Mark Andrews) on the development of the kit and that's certainly seen positive results. Alex (Alex Hopson - physio and trainer) has helped massively on the fitness, massage and keeping my body in a condition to race hard.

After the first day of racing the body was pretty sore, Alex was there to make sure I recovered for the next day.


The process usually starts in the morning with light exercise and preparation stretching then after racing the same again but more of a cool down and this helps the muscles repair for the next day. You don't get much recovery time and with the varied conditions in Palma you use different muscle groups each day.

After spending three years match racing I have had to get my head back into fleet racing and I feel the tactics and boat setup has improved and I will take confidence from the results and in particular the medal race.

It was also great to see the other Skandia Team GBR sailors doing so well, with great performances from Paul Goodison in the Laser and Iain Percy and Andrew "Bart" Simpson in the Star.

Just before the Palma regatta, I attended the launch of the UPS London 2012 Ambassador programme, I was asked to officially open the first London 2012 logistics centre alongside other UPS ambassadors, Denise Lewis and Steve Rider.

It was great to catch up with Denise again, we go back a long way having had the same sponsor for the Sydney Olympics – where we both won Olympic gold medals.

UPS is responsible for virtually all the distribution and logistics services for the games and taking part in the launch really brought home the scale of an event like the Olympics and how in reality it's just around the corner.

With an event like sailing, there is so much equipment that needs to be transported to off-site venues like The Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, it's good to know that all these logistics are in good hands.

Next up is France and Hyeres Olympic Regatta (April 23-29). I'm back in the gym this week putting the weight on that you naturally lose with all the time on the water last week, then next week we will be back training hard out in Hyeres ahead of the regatta. Hyeres's is infamous for its mistral which can last three days so it could make for an interesting regatta.

Ben Ainslie is Britain's most successful Olympic sailor. In total he has won three gold medals and one silver. His next aspiration is to qualify for and bring back a historic fourth gold in the London 2012 Olympics. He is also the current 2010 ISAF World Match Racing Champion. To find out more click here.

If at first you don't succeed...try another tack. That seems to be the strategy of Tottenham Hotspur as they seek to overturn the decision to allow rivals West Ham United to move into the Olympic stadium after next year's games.

Having lost a considerable amount of pride, as well as a fistful of dollars, in having their case booted firmly into touch by the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), Spurs have gone away, licked their wounds and come up with what they hope will be a convincing reason for acquiring the judicial review that would initially stall the whole process and, Spurs hope, ultimately rule in their favour.

Spurs are known to be deeply unhappy with the way the process was conducted after their Premiership rivals were judged as preferred bidders for the stadium by a landslide 14-0 margin. Initially, Tottenham threatened legal action against the OPLC who responded by insisting they had conducted the process fairly and objectively.

That could - many in the Olympic Movement would say should - have been the end of the matter. But Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is not the kind of man to be beaten into submission. The latest move, not against the OPLC but against Newham Council, one of the poorest boroughs in London, being allowed to loan West Ham £40 million ($65 million), is a last-ditch attempt by Spurs to grab the Olympic site for themselves.

The question is whether or not they should still be stubbornly trying to get their way. Fans parading outside White Hart Lane for last night's Champions League game against Real Madrid were unanimous in their opposition to moving to Stratford. I know because I was there and heard many of them interviewed.

Spurs insist most supporters do not come from the local area and that there is no collective opposition to moving from the current ground. But it is becoming an increasingly spurious and tired argument.

Less spurious, however, is their challenge against Newham's massive loan, the core of the club's attempt to gain permission from the High Court to bring a judicial review. Sports lawyers and architects contacted by insidethegames privately believe that singling out Newham rather than the OPLC is a clever, canny move by Spurs. The OPLC was never going to be a realistic target since it is, in effect, a quango that has no assets and doesn't own anything. So Spurs had a choice of three other targets -– Newham Council, the Mayor's Office and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. No prizes for guessing which is the least resourced.

There is another issue here and that is whether local councils - especially those whose resources are stretched - should be allowed to loan millions of pounds to clubs to build stadiums when the clubs themselves otherwise couldn't afford it. Spurs would argue that there has not been complete clarity over Newham's huge undertaking. Many neutrals as well as legal experts, given that it involves a state subsidy, would probably agree with them.


But is this the right way to move forward? Spurs made it clear in their initial pitch to move to Stratford that it was right for the club in terms of their fan base, right for the area – no post-Olympics white elephants, etc - right for sport since football and athletics don't mix in the same arena, and right for legacy since they were keeping athletics alive by revamping the antiquated Crystal Palace venue.

None of those arguments won the day, emotionally because West Ham are a club far more associated with that particular part of London. Now, it would appear, Tottenham's plan seems to be to go down the road of exposing the deal that Newham and West Ham have struck. Ironically Spurs may well end up having an even stronger case than before. Legally they may win, on the basis that Newham are providing an advantage to West Ham in respect of competition with other clubs, giving them the opportunity to play at a much bigger stadium than they could realistically afford. Spurs, it should be noted, would pay for their revamped 60,000-seater Olympic site with private money rather than at taxpayers' expense.

Morally, however, there must still be nagging doubts about Tottenham's motivation for taking the action they have. Is the alternative of redeveloping their current ground, for which planning permission, let's not forget, has already been granted, really as problematic as the club would have us believe? In which case the local authority THERE has a responsibility to step in and at least share some of the cost.

Or is there a deeper issue, that the area in and around White Hart Lane, even with a 56,000-capacity ground, is simply too uninviting to generate the kind of knock-on revenue the Olympic site would provide? Legal versus moral. And the kind of debate Olympic chiefs could do without 18 months before the Games.

Andrew Warshaw is a former sports editor of The European, the newspaper that broke the Bosman story in the 1990s, the most significant issue to shape professional football as we know it today. Before that, he worked for the Associated Press for 13 years in Geneva and London. He is now the chief football reporter for our sister publication, insideworldfootball. He has supported Tottenham for 50 years.

We have all seen those Q and A interviews where a celebrity is asked who he or she would invite to a dinner party. It is a game we can all play. Most of my guests would be blindingly obvious – Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Angelina Jolie...and I would also be more than happy to break bread with one of Britain's greatest living sportsmen, though I doubt any of the other guests would have heard of him. Indeed, not that many people have outside the word wheelchair racing.

It has been said that David Weir is the sort of bloke you could chat to down at your local all night and never know he is currently the sport's principal achiever,·a world and Paralympic champion whose cabinet is crammed with trophies and medals.

In any other sphere of sport he'd be an icon. But he says he's happy to be who he is: "That's me - Dave from Wallington, I might have won a few things but I've still got the same mates I've had from back on the council estate."

I met Weir for the first time recently after his regular training spin in Richmond Park, where he was preparing for this Sunday's Virgin London Marathon, a race he has won four times - which might have been five had his wheelchair not got a double puncture last year.

We quickly found some common ground. Turns out he's a great boxing fan. Indeed, in different circumstances, he'd love to have been a boxer, like two of his brothers, one an ABA finalist and another a pro for a while. "My good friend friend Ricky Bullen has just turned pro. I love the fight game. My heroes are·Roberto Duran,·Joe Calzaghe and Ricky Hatton."

Boxer he could never be, having been born almost·32 years ago with spinal cord transection, which left him without the use of his legs. But fighter he unquestionably is.

Tattooed on his chest is a Japanese symbol meaning "To win."

"That pretty well sums me up as an athlete," he says.

Apart from the redoubtable Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Britain has never had such a prolific wheelchair wizard, a sport he took up after trying swimming and basketball.

Subsequently he has won double Paralympic gold, a silver and bronze in Beijing and a silver and bronze in Athens, collecting an MBE along the way

Last year he won the New York Marathon and his latest triumph was triple gold - in the T54 800 metres, 1500m, and 5,000m - in the World Championships in Christchurch.


Usually, as did the London Marathon's other renowned David – "Bootsie" Bedford whose valedictory event as race director this is – Weir he likes to lead from the front. But in Christchurch he had to change tactics because of a lack of preparation following a shoulder operation.

Weir has the shoulders of a weightlifter from the amount of weight training he does, and they are a vital part of the human machinery which allied to his wheels·- newly custom-built at £5,000- have made him the Lewis Hamilton of his sport.

"Actually our chairs are like Formula One cars - they're the absolute cutting edge of technology - and everything has to be just perfect.

"If it wasn't for wheelchair racing [he has been a full-time athlete for ten years] I don't know what I would have done," he tells me. "I'd probably have been a bum."

The Paralympic scene is a somewhat different now to when he first started spinning the wheels. "There are more kids on the streets in wheelchairs and the public are used to seeing them. Also I think people have become fascinated by the Paralympics from what they have seen on TV. They realise they can be as exciting as able bodied sport.

"We are not quite there yet in terms of being recognised like the able bodied athletes but I am hopeful that it will come.

It certainly doesn't bother him that he's not as famous as, say Jessica Ennis or Chris Hoy.

"I do get recognised now and then which is nice but I just see myself as a wheelchair athlete doing his best for his country.

"When I first started doing the marathon people used to pat me on then back and say 'Well done.' They thought I'd just got up that morning, got into the wheelchair and raced. They had no idea of the sort of hard work and preparation that goes into it."

Yet it hasn't all been freewheeling for the South Londoner. He admits falling out of love with the sport some years back, when his life could have turned sour. "It was after Atlanta. I was about 17 and missed doing the things that other teenagers were doing, like going down to the pub for a drink with your mates.·I was fed up with the training, with the discipline of it all, stuck in the same routine. Also there was a lot of politics in the sport at the time and I thought 'I don't need this any more, I need to live a little.

"Then when I watched the Sydney Paralympics on TV, with Tanni winning all those medals. I just sat there crying. It broke my heart. I had to turn it off. I said to myself 'I've got to do this.' I had no qualifications, nothing. Wheelchair racing was the only thing I was any good at."

His wheels of fortune changed when he was reunited with his present coach Jenny Archer, who had been a fitness trainer with Vinnie Jones and the Crazy Gang at Wimbledon FC, and knew how to knock hard men into line. "She had been training another group of wheelchair athletes for about six months. I needed to be pushed a little bit so I asked her to help me. Until then I didn't know what hard training was.


"I won the London Marathon that year. She has been coaching me ever since and now I help out with the coaching of other youngsters.

"I've got this strong competitive edge. I think it's in my genes. My dad was a champion miler in the Army and two of my brothers were both tidy boxers.

"My parents brought me up to be independent. I was David Weir, not poor David in a wheelchair. My mates don't see the wheelchair, they just see me. I have never seen myself as disabled. I have always been treated as normal."

That normality extends to his personal family life. He has an eight-year-old daughter from a previous relationship – and is expecting a baby with his new partner this summer.

He also produces dance music. "'I'm a massive house fan," he says. "I know a few of the Ministry of Sound lads. I'd love to have a wine bar and get them DJing."

Apart from the London Marathon he has a number of track races this year, two of them in Switzerland. "The track races are very important because they set the qualifying standards.·I love going to Switzerland because the tracks are so fast and the competition is good.·One of my targets this year is to get my world records back.·I have to have a challenge every year at this stage in my career because there isn't much I haven't won.

"I've won London and New York marathons, broken two world records and been world champion three times as well as getting gold medals in Beijing, so I need another challenge, but they are very hard to find."

His wheelchair racing hero, the Swiss legend Heinz Frei, now 52 will be one of his rivals on Sunday. "He may be getting on a bit, but he's not there to make up the numbers, I don't underestimate him. He'll be trying to win. He's the best wheelchair racer there's ever been."

Of course, Weir's eyes are focussed beyond this weekend

"I'll definitely do the marathon in 2012 because my training is specifically geared towards that.

"I think about it all the time. London is always at the back of my mind. To win the marathon down the Mall would be the pinnacle of my career. What better way to bow out?

"Hopefully I'll stay fit and give it a go. To win gold in London would be a real dream come true."

So who would he invite for that celebratory celeb nosh should he win?"

Definitely Heinz Frei and Roberto Duran, and he'd love the late Sir Ludwig Guttman to have been there as the founder of the Paralympics. "I'd also like to meet Margaret Thatcher, because of her strength as a leader. I'd ask her what she makes of the country today."

Now that would be a fascinating dinner conversation.

Lucozade Sport is fuelling David Weir at this year's Virgin London Marathon. For more info, tips and videos click here.

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, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

The link might not be immediately apparent.

But this week's move by US businessman Stan Kroenke to take his stake in Arsenal, the underachieving English Premier League football club, to 63 per cent while agreeing a mandatory offer for the rest of the shares could turn out to be good news for Russia's underachieving Olympic athletes.

Why? Because Arsenal minority shareholder Alisher Usmanov may sooner or later be in line to receive a very large cheque.

And, while the Uzbekistan-born businessman has a finger in so many pies that his windfall could be invested in all manner of places, Russian Olympians have grounds for hoping that some of it might be deployed in their direction.

Usmanov, after all, is President of the international federation of one Olympic sport – fencing – and is married to a leading figure in another, Irina Viner, chief coach of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation.

He is also one of the founders of a special fund to finance Russian athletes preparing for the London 2012 Olympics.

And he has ties to not one but two sponsors of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics - MegaFon, the mobile telephone operator, and Kommersant, the publishing house.

Russia is investing heavily in sport, in a drive triggered partly by its disappointing showing in the last two Olympic Games.

In Beijing in 2008, it looked for a time as though it could lose third place in the medals table to Great Britain and was left trailing far behind the top two, China and the United States.

But this was nothing compared to last year's disaster in Vancouver, where Russia could finish only 11th.

Since then, Alexander Zhukov, President of the Russian Olympic Committee has warned that Russia must finish top of the medals table at Sochi 2014, while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has announced plans for the country to spend a massive 90 billion roubles on developing sports in the build-up to those Games.

In this context, any move by Usmanov to channel a portion of the close to £200 million ($326 million) he could expect to receive by accepting Kroenke's £11,750 ($19,140) a share Arsenal offer would be likely to be greatly appreciated by the country's chief power-brokers.

Not that the money is necessarily to be expected any time soon.

Usmanov, it has been reported by the BBC, is angry about what has happened and has no intention of selling his stake.

In the longer term, though, it is hard to see what is to be gained by sitting on even such a big minority shareholding if majority control is clearly in Kroenke's hands.

And if Usmanov does decide in the end to sell, some of Kroenke's dollars just might end up, in effect, helping to bolster performance levels in one of the US's main Olympic rivals.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed at www.twitter.com/dodo938

March 15 was a landmark date on the London 2012 calendar that saw a huge wave of excitement descend upon the country as the Olympic tickets went on sale with just 500 days to go to the Games.

There was arguably, even more excitement for over 500 young people in Leicester and Leicestershire as they took part in our local 500 days to go celebrations, a torch relay from the county to the city using the original 1948 London Olympic torch.

Our day started at Loughborough College, where our team incorporating young leaders from Flames: Lighting the Way, a London 2012 Inspire Mark project, assisted students from RNIB College Loughborough in starting off the relay. The torch relay came to a close at Leicester City Football Club with one final lap of the pitch with club ambassador Alan Birchenall and students from the Leicester Tigers Study Support Centre, cheered on by Foxes boss Sven-Goran Eriksson and supported by a Taiko drumming group from Humphrey Perkins School.

You may be exhausted just reading about the events so far, but we didn't stop there. Following the torch relay we launched straight into a conference to celebrate the work of our schools and colleges that are already part of the Get Set Network. The conference was designed to allow other local schools and colleges that have yet to take that step, see firsthand how the Get Set programme and the Olympic and Paralympic values have a positive impact on the lives of young people, thanks to case studies from Folville Junior School, The Robert Smyth School and Burleigh College, in addition to the numerous schools and colleges that formed our exhibition area.


We were also very lucky to have a number of special guests with us on the day from the world of sport including Paralympic Gold medallist and current F44/46 discus world record holder, Dan Greaves who spoke about his experiences as an elite level athlete, Wells Sport Foundation Ambassador and triathlete Katie Ingram, and two young hopefuls in the form of Leicestershire and Rutland Sport Go Gold Ambassadors Michael Reeve and Fiona McGoram, who all spoke about their 2012 Games aspirations.

It is very difficult to put into the words the overwhelming success of the day and the personal pride that I felt in helping so many young people to have their own personal 2012 Games experience and hopefully to have inspired them to create their own 2012 Games legacy, so I would urge you to take a look at our highlights video that really brings the day to life.

Among the youngsters to run with the torch was 10-year-old Yasirah Mota. She said: "I feel really happy to see the torch and it's really sentimental and exciting, I think the Olympics is really interesting so I'm looking forward to it." Her friend, Huda Mustafa, 10, said: "It's very interesting stuff. I am so excited." Alderson Edwards, 11, was also delighted to carry the torch. He said: "I watched the Beijing Olympics and really enjoyed it so it's going to be good having the Olympics next year in London."I'm astounded to see the torch and do the relay race."

Dan Mitchinson is the 2012 Games Legacy Co-ordinator at Leicestershire County Council. To see a video of the day click here.

The theme music for the hilarious BBC TV spoof series on London's run-in to the Olympics, Twenty-Twelve is "There may be trouble ahead." No doubt Lord Coe, who had a cameo role in an early episode, is having a wry smile about that.

It was all going so smoothly, a veritable cake-walk in the Olympic Park for organisers LOCOG, with the IOC heartily back-slapping Coe and co and declaring that London's preparations were the best-ever.

Then along came little Lord Moynihan to make waves – not quite a tsunami but big enough to cause serious concerns about potential storm damage.

As it happens the embarrassing cash spat between two Tory peers and fellow Olympic medallists may now be sorted around the table rather that a Swiss court – though I still wouldn't bet on it.

Somewhat inevitably, as the count-down clock ticks away, the Coe-Moynihan feud has now been followed by more controversies which suggest that while 2012's wheels may not be coming off, the gloves most certainly are.

This week two more Olympians have been in maelstrom-making mode.

First Dave Bedford, the one-time wild child of the track who for almost two decades has brilliantly orchestrated the London Marathon, revealed that he had walked out of his role helping plan the Olympic event, saying he could no longer work with the organisers.

A case of "Bootsie" putting the boot in.

When I lunched with 61-year-old Bedford recently he seemed more irritated than angry, clearly believing he should have had more support from the top.

"I am disappointed because I feel Seb could have done something about it and didn't," he told me.

Of course, dear old Dave has always been a bit of a maverick but apart from the late Chris Brasher no-one has known more about how to stage a great marathon.

His expertise is an undoubted loss, however lightly Coe may care to dismiss it.

Then along comes Tessa Sanderson to hurl her javelin deep into Olympic heartland in Newham, saying the local Council, by whom she had been employed to successfully run their sports academy, "haven't got it right " about Olympic legacy.

Tessa, who resigned from the Olympic Legacy Company board after she was barred from voting on the stadium's future, fears athletics will be squeezed out eventually despite the track-keeping pledge made by football tenants West Ham.

She also has other issues with the way things are going on the road to 2012, a road paved with potential gold medals all round but now some treacherous pot-holes too.

However for me, the most critical dispute over the Games concerns the pernicious punch-up between the ABA of England and international governing body AIBA, who chose this week to reveal that Team GB's head boxing coach Rob McCracken will be barred from the Games unless he relinquishes his role as a professional trainer with world super-middleweight champion Carl Froch.

Along with a selected fistful of scribes, including insidethegames Tom Degun, first to break the story, I was invited to a rather pleasant dinner with Dr Ching-kuo Wu, the English-educated Taiwanese billionaire boss of AIBA during the SportAccord convention in London.

The object of the exercise, we were told, was to publicise final stages of the current World Series of Boxing (WSB), a global international inter-city team competition run by AIBA under revolutionary new rules.

But it was news of another AIBA rule which had us spluttering over our roast lamb and two veg Dr Wu, prompted by his chief executive Ho Kim, of Korea, casually dropped a bombshell by revealing he had just written to Keith Walters, chair of the ABA of England, informing him that McCracken was no longer licensed to work as a coach in AIBA-run tournaments, including the Olympics and world amateur championships because of his association with pro fighters, mainly Froch.

They cited a "long-standing rule" which barred pro-linked coaches from working the corner, or even attending AIBA events – though curiously an AIBA spokesman later back-tracked, admitting that the regulation was only ratified last month.

Don't you think something smells a bit iffy here?

By strange coincidence the ABAE is currently under suspension by AIBA following the foolhardy attempt by former chief executive Paul King to topple the mighty Dr Wu, who is also an influential IOC member, from his presidential perch.

There is little doubt that Dr Wu remains extremely peeved by what he seems to perceive as King's impudence, and is none too pleased either that the ABAE declined to take up a London franchise with his new baby, the WSB.

We were told at the time that this was not seen as an economically viable proposition, though some boxers were disappointed because of the opportunity to earn substantial prize money.

Now here's the real irony in all this. AIBA have virtually professionalised 'amateur' boxing (the label is the only one remaining in the Olympics) in the WSB tournaments by removing headguards and vests, with bouts of five rounds (seven in the finals), and employing the pro-style 10 points per round scoring system. And participants get paid handsomely, in some cases trousering as much as they might as in the pro game, while retaining their Olympic eligibility.

They are professionals in all but name.

Yet AIBA want to ban coaches like McCracken who have links with the professional sport.

The words double and standards spring to mind.

The British Olympic Association are unhappy, and now seeking clarification from AIBA about the sudden inclusion of a regulation which, as they point out, could have serious repercussions on the medal prospects of those GB male and female boxers who have been nurtured by McCracken and whose recent performances have been outstanding.

The BOA want to know why this rule is being applied and hopefully chair Colin Moynihan (pictured) will take a breather from his bout with Seb Coe to investigate.

He should have some sympathy as he did a bit of the old one-two himself - he was a boxing Blue at Oxford and was once suspended himself, by the ABA as it happens, for sparring with professionals.

Funders UK Sport are also entitled to enquire just what is going on, having invested substantially into achieving success for British boxers in 2012.

Dr Wu's revelation seems a cunningly aimed body blow. But is it below the belt?

It might appear to some that King falling on his sword has not been sufficient to appease him.

But I fear the ABAE are on the ropes, with the likelihood of McCracken missing both the World Championships and start of the Olympic qualifiers later this year as he is tied to a commitment with Froch in the Super Six series in June.

Also, unless the rule is rescinded or an exception made (unlikely) he would need to give six months notice of his ending ties with the pros to work at the Olympics. It's a mess.

So can the new man in the ABAE ring sort it?

Taking on the wily Dr Wu and his formidable Korean henchman, the Oddjob of the fight game, will be an interesting task for freshly-appointed chief executive Mark Abberley, apparently experienced in sports management with a leisure group but with no know-how of the intensely political in-fighting of amateur boxing.

But as least his background as chairman of the Archery Great Britain Performance Group should prepare him for the slings and arrows of the sport's outrageous fortune.

With all that is happening at the moment his will be some baptism. We wish him luck.

He's going to need it.

Seconds out!

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, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

Team GB has departed for the Artistic Gymnastics European Championships in Berlin, but unfortunately I won't be joining them on this occasion.

Obviously I am a little bit disappointed but my routines are just not quite sharp enough yet, and I still have a bit more work to get them back to the standard they were prior to my injury.

My original competition target after my operation was to compete in October at the World Championships in Tokyo. Because my rehabilitation was ahead of schedule it allowed me to challenge for a spot on the team for the European Championships, so I guess I am still really pleased that I almost clinched one of the spots.

I have been training at Lilleshall with the rest of Team GB for the past two weeks as I am still the first reserve team member, and I have to say the team is looking really strong so I wish them all the best of luck.

The boys have a friendly competition with Team Germany this weekend in Leipzig before travelling to Berlin with the qualifying rounds for the championships starting on 5 April.

The British Team championships were held in Leicester on 20 March and Team Huntingdon finished third behind South Essex and Leeds respectively.

Unfortunately we were unable to field our strongest team as Louis Smith was competing in Paris, Sam Oldham only performed on three apparatus and I could only perform on four apparatus due to a small injury I picked up mid week on my left index finger. But the rest of the team - Luke Carson, Amhard Thomas and Cameron Mackenzie - performed brilliantly and pulled the team through to clinch the Bronze medal.

I also took part in a GB v France friendly held in Ipswich on 26 March which we won comfortably ahead of France by ten marks.

I put in a fairly solid competition apart from a fall on rings and scored 88.05 which saw me finish 2nd All Around. This was a good competition for me and shows I am making good progress on my routines as my overall score has got better in every competition I have entered. I feel I am almost back to where I would like to be.

Daniel Keatings, who is powered by Opus Energy, made history in 2009 when he became the first British gymnast to win a medal in the all-round event at the World Championships. He was also the first British gymnast to win a European Championship gold when he won the pommel horse event in Berlin in 2010. To find out more about his sponsorship deal with Opus Energy click here.