GB Olympic boxing: Selby should have been auto qualifier after world silver; Yafai to join pro ranks ?

It remains a mystery why Andrew Selby, the European champion and silver medallist from the world championships in Baku, Azerbaijan, was forced into a box-off for the Olympic with Khalid Yafai. Bonkers decision. No logic. And why, even, a box-off over three matches ? Isn't the world, and indeed, Olympic tournament quite clearly on a knock out basis. The British Amateur Boxing Association needs to not fall into the trap of doing what AIBA, the world amateur governing body for the sport have done (or got away with) for far too long, in making the rules up as they go along.

From this perspective, it was just that Selby won the first bout at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, by a princely margin, and that Yafai then struggled to make the weight for Saturday. It meant the Olympic placed passed automatically to the Welshman. The third of their bouts would have taken place at the test event at the ExCeL Arena early in December.

They are both flyweights, and the ruling for the Olympic Games is that one boxer per country per weight division is allowable. Yafai had already represented GB in Beijing in 2008. The underlying issue, after he had qualified a place in London with a quarter-final berth at the world championships, was that he had beaten Selby twice in prior bouts. The agreement with the GB team set-up was that if Selby took gold in Baku, he would not have to go through a box-off. In essence, a mess. The highest qualifier at a tournament should go to the Games. If they had both reached the semi-final, and won a bronze medal as losers at that stage, their equal standing might have merited it.

London 2012 Olympics: BOA drug cheat bylaw may hit bureaucratic stalemate

Robust: Lord Moynihan is holding firm on his view on drug cheats (Photo: AP)

It has occasionally been said of Lord Moynihan, the combative and committed chairman of the British Olympic Association, that he could start an argument in an empty room.

He has had no need to search for an opponent in the deepening row with the World Anti-Doping Agency, but if he is to put the uncertainty over the legality of the BOA’s life-ban for convicted dopers to bed, he may have to win the argument in an empty chamber.

The row between the two agencies is on one level very simple.

Does the BOA have the right to bar convicted drugs cheats from its Olympic team for life, on the basis that it is free to choose who is eligible to wear the Team GB vest? Or is it, as WADA maintain, bound to respect the universal code, under which all doping sanctions have to be uniform, rendering the life-ban illegal?

A simple question perhaps, but the dispute risks being swallowed in rhetoric and the bureaucratic mire of global anti-doping and dispute resolution.

The International Olympic Committee found to its cost last month that it has to bow to WADA on doping, when American sprinter LaShawn Merritt’s ban from London 2012 under IOC Rule 45 was overturned at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

That case has established a precedent that WADA believes renders the BOA bylaw defunct. CAS ruled that the IOC’s rule was a sanction not an eligibility test, and therefore invalid, and WADA believes the same logic applies to the BOA.

To prove it WADA asked Michael Beloff QC to look at the case and he agreed that the BOA was “non-compliant” with the code. WADA sent that opinion to the BOA which construed it as a challenge and called for a ruling from CAS.

In theory this was probably the least bad solution, a chance to test the bylaw without the emotional baggage and personal stress that a challenge from an athlete would bring.

But for reasons that are not yet clear but probably blend politics, legal nicety and personal animus, WADA appear unwilling. Its director general David Howman told Telegraph Sport on Wednesday evening that he had no intention of being a party to a CAS arbitration.

But without two parties there can be no arbitration, which takes us back to Moynihan and the empty chamber. With no arbitration the bylaw stands, for now, a move interpreted as an expert calling of WADA’s bluff by the former sports minister.

Perhaps. Few in the doping and Olympic community think WADA can be described as bluffing when their hand includes a considered legal opinion from one of the most experienced lawyers in sport, and an apparently clear precedent in the Merritt case. But for now, its deadlock.

One question worth addressing is why, if WADA does not want to pursue arbitration, why has it taken this course?

The reason is that this weekend WADA’s board is required to compile a list of which of its signatory agencies are compliant with its code. It goes through this process every two years, a deadline that persuaded it to seek clarification from the BOA, which as a national Olympic committee is signed up to the code.

With the status of the bylaw uncertain and in WADA’s opinion illegal, the BOA risks being declared non-compliant, an embarrassment at the very least for an NOC about to host an Olympics.

The consequences could in theory be much worse. WADA can take internal measures against non-compliant countries, barring them from committees and its board.

The IOC and international federations can take tougher action. London is lucky, for example, that it has already won the hosting rights to the Games because non-compliant countries are barred from bidding for them.

In theory London could even lose the right to stage them. According to the WADA code “other consequences may include the ineligibility to host events, cancellation of international events and symbolic consequences.”

None of these are likely to be invoked, but to find a way through this mess someone will have to back down. That will be hard given the bad blood on both sides.

Moynihan’s highly critical speech calling for fundamental reform of WADA and describing it as “toothless” has caused offence and annoyance at the agency’s Canadian headquarters.

Howman responded by describing it as an inaccurate and emotional “tirade”.

Neither has WADA done itself any favours in its public statements, which last night contained one significant inaccuracy and a misinterpretation. WADA claimed that it had not had any contact with the BOA since October, ignoring the letter and legal opinion sent to Charlotte Street this week. It also denied challenging the BOA to go to CAS, something that Moynihan did not allege.

WADA has also apparently changed its mind on the issue, an irony given its over-riding interest in consistency. In 2009 WADA told the BOA the bylaw was compliant. This October, following the Merritt ruling, they ruled it was not, a view emphasised this week.

Finding a way out of the muddle will not be straightforward but without a challenge the bylaw will remain. Everyone I have asked inside the Olympic movement in the last 48 hours thinks it will fall at the first challenge.

But Moynihan’s commitment to it, backed by the support of 90 per cent of British athletes and, one can assume, majority public opinion, is sincere and deeply held. And, for the time being, it looks like being successful.

London 2012 Olympics diary: WW1 verterans to be honoured by BOA

Noel Godfrey was one of only three people to be awarded the Victoria Cross twice for bravery and devotion to duty

Olympic athletes who gave their lives during World War I will be honoured at the Armistice Remembrance Day Ceremony in Yprés, Belgium.

British Olympic Association Chairman Colin Moynihan will lead a delegation of British Olympic medallists and officials at the Menin Gate at 11:00 am on the 11th of November and will be joined by IOC president Jacques Rogge.

The Last Post Association says,there are three British Olympians in the Yprés Salient: Captain (Doctor) Noel  Godfrey  Chavasse VC and Bar,  who was a 400m runner at the 1908 London Olympics;  Lt G.R.L. ‘Twiggy’ Anderson a hurdles finalist at the Stockholm Olympics in 1912 and world record holder and Gunner George Albert (GA) Hawkins a 200m finalist at the 1908 London Olympic Games.

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How fortunate that the Team GB football teams had their fixtures announced months ahead of any other team.

With more than 1.5 million football tickets to shift, London Olympic Games organisers are now able to market – and sell – a wad of Games football tickets as ideal Christmas presents.

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A big pre-opening ceremony Olympic Games rock concert is being mooted to put the capital in a festive mood but the planning has put a couple of Olympic sponsors offside.

While Coca Cola has the celebrated DJ Mark Ronson involved to produce a worldwide advertisement including the sounds athletes make, it appears Locog wants one massive rock event, rather than separate sponsor activations.

But we are hearing there are  problems securing an adequate venue.

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With the Olympic torch relay route confirmed this week, the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt has started his own nationwide tour to promote the tourism benefits of the Olympics.

Unlike the torch Hunt won't quite reach 95 per cent of the country but his 13 city visits  will launch 20.12 per cent discounts for domestic tourism on the back of the

Olympics.

This scheme is funded from nearly £3 million of the £9.3 billion  Olympic budget.

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More than 4,000 semi-mature trees, including Willow, Poplar and Alder have been planted at the Olympic Park.

The greening of the Park is now completed with more than 10 football fields’ worth of nectar-rich annual and perennial meadows ready to flower during the  Olympic Games.

Designers have built more than 3,300 seats into the park so people are never more than 50m walk from a seat.

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One of the Olympic sponsors, Coca Cola, is planning to create 80 million new Coke bottles within six weeks of the closing ceremony of the Games using about a fifth of the total waste from the  Games.

The company says all of the clear PET plastic will be recycled and will help Locog's target to send zero waste to landfill. A new recycling facility with Eco Plastics in North Lincolnshire will double the current recycled  plastic from 35,000 tonnes to more than 75,000 tonnes.

Insecure Australians scale down London 2012 Olympics medal target. What would Glenn McGrath say?

Reality check: Ian Thorpe doesn't look like contributing medals any time soon (Photo: REUTERS)

In a shockingly un-Australian display of modesty and reticence, Australian Olympic Committee Chairman John Coates has admitted that the country’s London 2012 medal chances are “worrying” – and that they are projecting fewer gongs than the Oz team managed in 2008.

The AOC is predicting 30 medals next summer, which would represent the lowest haul since Barcelona 1992. Worse yet, the Aussie boffins have calculated that they might finish eighth in the medal table – below the hated Poms.

What has the world come to?

Is this the nation that gave us Glenn McGrath’s metronomic pre-series forecast of “5-0, mate” prior to every Ashes series? Talking up your hopefuls’ chances prior to a sporting event ought to be an Australian’s birthright.

But it’s not just the Olympics guys, who, after all, could be forgiven for not wanting to bet the farm on a medal haul that will be missing Ian Thorpe’s traditional 17 golds. Elsewhere in Aussie sport, we are seeing outbreaks of humility and proportion.

Shane Warne, coming out of retirement for domestic Twenty20 cricket in Melbourne, offered a muted: “I wouldn’t go into playing these games without a sense of confidence in my ability that I can go out there to make a difference” where once he would have been grinning broadly and wondering about what to spend the Man of the Series cheque on.

The rugby union men are also chastened. After comprehensive defeat in the last four of the Rugby World Cup, Michael Lynagh shrugged: “Defeat in a semi-final to New Zealand represents a good performance in the tournament.”

But this is the most damming of all. Is Aussie popstar-turned-celebrity-hoofer Holly Valance shooting her mouth off about winning Strictly Come Dancing in the traditional manner?

Not at all: “I don’t know if I’ll do it but I’ll have a good go,” said Holly deferentially, while somewhere out in Narromine, New South Wales, Glenn McGrath wept into his tinny about the cowardly over caution of his countrymen.

London 2012 Olympics: torch relay will convert even the staunchest Olympic sceptic

The London 2012 Olympic torch (Photo: LOCOG)

In May and June next year a curious feeling will overcome the UK.

Suddenly the most cynical and uninterested of the British public,  who has largely ignored the London 2012 Olympic Games build-up, will become converted into an Olympic fan.

The source of such revelation? A small flame on the end of a golden torch being carried around the country by 8,000 local people – and a few celebrities.

The impact and magnitude of the Olympic torch relay in creating a unified and passionate base for the home Games cannot be underestimated.

In the lead-up to the Sydney Olympic Games the mood of the nation shifted 180 degrees from anxiety about Olympic costs and ticketing to unbridled cheering on the day the Olympic torch arrived and was carried to Uluru by an aboriginal sprinter Nova Peris.

At the Vancouver Winter Olympics, divisions over the local communities and squabbling about costs were silenced in the cacophony of support for local torch bearers as it weaved its way throughout Canada.

I suspect that across the UK, the hundreds of communities that are already preparing for the torch arrival will galvanise a similar tidal wave of Olympic cheering.

Just why this is so, remains a mystery. I suspect people will say it is part myth – the thought that a flame lit by the rays of the sun can remain constantly light and bright and touch parts of the country that previously was immune to any connection to the Games, and part curiosity – to see what the fuss is all about.

Organisers of the London 2012 torch relay have taken a risk though, in deviating from the true relay concept. They are having runners pass the flame through towns, and then whisking it into the back of a truck to take it to the next town.

Part of the torch's romance was its journey through remote locations with just a farmer and his dog cheering it on, rather than ensuring every landmark has a picture opportunity.

But the organisers have taken this relay-by-truck method to ensure it will reach the farthest flung reaches of the country. And curiously it will be those areas the greatest distance away from London that will embrace the torch the most.

London kept its side of athletics legacy bargain, now IAAF must award capital the World Championships

Not again: Lord Coe will be praying for no repeat of the jubilation when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup (Photo: AFP)

I am trying to picture the headlines next week if Doha is chosen ahead of London to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships. It doesn’t make pretty reading.

If anything, the humiliation would be even greater than England’s last-place finish in the 2018 World Cup vote because London is so obviously a more suitable candidate than its rival, with its furnace-like temperatures and crowds so sparse that they have to bus in migrant workers for Diamond League meetings and then lock the

stadium doors to stop them leaving early.

One can only imagine the backlash. It would be seen as a snub of epic proportions, and it would certainly re-open the debate over whether a permanent running track in the Olympic Stadium can really be justified.

If the International Association of Athletics Federations couldn't care less about cementing Britain’s athletics legacy, then why should we spend tax-payers’ money keeping the Olympic Stadium in public ownership just to guarantee the future of the running track?

The clamour to tear up the track would be deafening, while the personal criticism of Lord Coe for his insistence on a permanent athletics legacy would also grow louder. And all this at a time when Britain was supposed to be getting ready for a gigantic celebration of Olympic sport, with athletics at its centre.

Such a scenario is why the IAAF council members must do the right thing next week and vote for London. It is surely payback time for the efforts of Coe, and indeed the Government, in sticking so firmly to London’s promise to retain an athletics legacy for the Olympic Stadium.

That promise was made to the International Olympic Committee in Singapore in 2005 and was a key factor in London’s success in securing the 2012 Games. It is widely believed that Lamine Diack, the IAAF president, switched his vote from Paris to London because of that undertaking.

Diack certainly did not forget London’s promise earlier this year when the Olympic Park Legacy Company were weighing whether to allow Tottenham to tear up the track and rebuild the stadium as a football-only venue.

In fact, his outrage at such a prospect could not have been plainer as he talked of “betrayal” and “a big lie” if the track was removed.

It is worth recalling the statement he released in support of a permanent running track. He wrote:

The crux of the stadium debate for the IAAF focuses on the commitment given by the London bid committee in Singapore in 2005 to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has many members from the sport of athletics, to retain a sustainable athletics legacy after the London Games.

This promise was not a footnote of London’s bid: it was a core  policy of their presentation to convince the Olympic family of their exciting, viable legacy plans. It offered a vision of year-round health and fitness opportunities for the local community and a venue to stage national and major international athletics competitions ranging from meetings like the Samsung Diamond League to Area and World Championships.

So there it is. In reminding us of London’s promise, Diack also acknowledged the city’s vision of a vibrant athletics legacy with major international meetings, including the World Championships, being staged in the stadium.

That is the vision that Coe has held on to ever since London was awarded the Olympics, despite the pressures to water down the promise made in Singapore.

London has kept its side of the bargain. Now it is up to the IAAF to deliver.

London 2012 Olympics diary: Tanni Grey-Thompson backs BOA drug cheat bylaw

Life means life: Tanni Grey-Thompson believes Dwain Chambers should not be able to compete at the Olympics (Photo: Paul Grover)

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has revealed that she nearly included a recommendation to drug test coaches during her widespread doping review of UK Athletics.

Grey-Thompson's review back in 2009 brought about a toughening of sanctions against drug users, but she said a key measure she wishes she had now included was to have coaches and support staff around athletes also undergo drug tests.

She believes some coaches may be drug takers themselves and sending wrong messages to athletes.

"It wouldn't hurt for them to understand what we have to go through for a drug test either," she said.

The multi-medal winning Paralympian also backed the British Olympic Association's bylaw that prohibits the selection of anyone with a doping conviction.

Despite noises from cycling and track and field at the time of LaShawn Merritt's court victory, which gave the athlete the right to compete at the London Olympics, no one has yet challenged the BOA's tough position.

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British diver Tom Daley is to be immortalised in wax at the Madame Tussauds museum.

Daley tweeted that he would be setting new ground for the museum as he would be wearing nothing other than Speedos.

The work will capture Daley diving mid-air towards the water.

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Freshfields lawyers have been busy dealing with hundreds of small transgressions of the Olympic act which prohibits non-Olympic companies from promoting any association with the London 2012 Olympics.

But the tactic to stamp out small problems to send a deterrent message to the big end of town hasn't hit home. This week a main multinational communications rival to sponsor Samsung was publicising a new phone product " to shine at London Olympics 2012". Legal letters have started to fly.

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Olympic Park Legacy Company chiefs, chair Baroness Margaret Ford and chief executive Andrew Altman will face a grilling next week in the London Assembly over the continuing delays to tender the Olympic Stadium.

Committee chair Dee Doocey said five years after London won the bid "we seem to be back to square one… we want to know what went wrong and what the consequences will be for the taxpayer."

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Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe will delay revealing his 100m freestyle prowess and concentrate on the butterfly and individual medley events as he swims competitively for the first time in five years at the Fina World Cup meets in Singapore, Beijing and Tokyo this month.

But many don't realise that Thorpe, as a 14 year old, was seriously considering concentrating on the 200m butterfly event, such was his dominance of the stroke.

His current Swiss-based coach Gennadi Touretski believes he won't be disgraced in the event.

London 2012 Olympics: forcing female boxers to wear skirts is a flawed and sleazy idea

Would you like to tell Chantelle Cameron and Nicola Adams to wear a skirt? (Photo: PA)

What is it about a flouncey short skirt that male sports administrators find so appealing? Here we are in the 21st century, where women have forged their equal rights in most areas of life, including, to the dismay of some men, the boxing ring.

For the first time at London 2012 women’s boxing will be on the Olympic Games program. Initially there were some commentators objecting to women being involved in a brutal and bloodied sport. Their shoddy assumptions usually centred on the supposed frailty of women.

Now we have dinosaur officials, again men, in charge of the international boxing authority the AIBA, who have recommended that the women compete in the Olympics in skirts.

I wouldn't be surprised if tucked away in those ridiculous and anachronistic recommendations are also a maximum skirt length, similar to the skimpy skirt requirement for beach volleyball players.

Thankfully female boxers have brains to match their brawn.

Ireland's Katie Taylor said: "It's a disgrace that they're forcing some of the women to wear those mini-skirts. We should be able to wear shorts, just like the men. I won't be wearing a mini-skirt. I don't even wear mini-skirts on a night out, so I definitely won't be wearing mini-skirts in the ring."

The AIBA says outrageously, that having women wear skirts would distinguish them from men. Hmm, here are some clues, guys: hips and breasts.

Not only is the idea flawed that skirts can somehow make female boxing appear more feminine, it is somewhat sleazy to have ringside boxing officials – nearly always male – looking upwards, ostensibly to watch the action. That's what I call perving.

Ian Thorpe will need to swim faster than ever before to make London 2012 Olympics

Challenge: Ian Thorpe returns to Australian swimming to see plenty of rivals for Olympic places (Photo: REUTERS)

It’s one of the most eagerly anticipated comebacks of the year, certainly in swimming circles, and quite possibly in sport generally.

After five years out of the water Ian Thorpe makes his competitive swimming return at the Singapore leg of the Fina World Cup tour, with a plethora of interested spectators eager to see what sort of shape he is in and to assess whether he can be a contender in London next year.

Having missed the 2006 Commonwealth Games through illness, Thorpe hasn’t been seen in international waters since the Athens Olympics, a competition where he cemented his place as a great of the sport by defending his 400m freestyle crown and adding the 200m freestyle title that had eluded him at a home Games in 2000.

For good measure he also picked up bronze in the 100m freestyle in Athens and it is on the shorter events that his comeback has been focused.

Even during his middle distance heyday, Thorpe often expressed a desire to improve his sprinting and given the relatively short period between announcing a return in March 2011 and the Olympics in August 2012, it was always likely that the sprints would be the priority, with there being simply not enough time available to become competitive over 400m.

To that end Thorpe has aligned himself with legendary Russian coach Gennadi Touretski, the man who guided the great Alex Popov to consecutive Olympic sprint doubles in 1992 and 1996 and who was responsible for the distinctive straight armed freestyle that took Michael Klim to a 100m freestyle world record.

Based in Lugarno in Switzerland, largely out of sight, Thorpe and Touretski have quietly been going about their business to prepare for this week’s big splashdown.

Expectations are unsurprisingly high, but a dose of realism is needed.

Looking at the case of fellow Australian sprinter Libby Trickett, the former women's 100m freestyle world record holder who was somewhat off her best when she returned to the race pool in July this year, gives credence to the view that Thorpe will not be on the pace immediately in Singapore .

What will be more interesting is whether he can develop his speed sufficiently in time for the Australian Olympic trials early next year. Such development is likely to mean technical changes to his stroke, but even if these are bedded in, Thorpe still faces a monumental challenge to even make the Australian team.

There has been a presumption that all Thorpe has to do is turn up to book his place in London, but the facts don’t necessarily reflect that view and, in fairness to Thorpe, he himself has said that he is prepared for failure.

Remember that Australia boasts two of the fastest freestylers of all time in Eamon Sullivan, a former world record holder, and James Magnussen, the fastest man ever seen in a textile suit, and that the Australian 4 x 100 freestyle relay team won the World Championships in Shanghai.

Thorpe’s best ever time is 48.56 which is slower than the best times of all four of that quartet, albeit that some of those times benefited from bodysuits providing more assistance than that which Thorpe wore, and would only have been good enough for 18th in the 2011 world rankings, behind a fifth Australian, James Roberts.

Against that background just making it to London will probably mean Thorpe swimming faster than he ever has before.

• Follow the pullbuoy blog for the latest from the world of swimming – http://www.pullbuoy.co.uk/

London 2012 Olympics: pessimism grows around journey times during Games

Only way: Mark Cavendish has the right idea about the best way to get around London

A quick 20-minute dash from Soho to Stratford? Or how about zipping from Wembley to the Olympic Park in under 35 minutes? These were some of the fanciful transport times being suggested to the International Olympic Committee by London 2012 organisers in the early stages of their transport planning, using of course, the controversial Olympic Route Network.

But the latest figures released to the media at the World Press Briefing show that even the most pessimistic travel times were way too conservative, even though 100 miles of roads will be dedicated solely for official Olympic Games traffic.

VIP might end up standing for 'Very Impatient People' as the journey times using the Olympic Lanes have been increased by 50 to 100 per cent.

In most cases, athletes might be advised to jump on a bike as it will get them to their destination infinitely quicker.

For badminton players and officials, who were promised a 30-minute commute from the Olympic Village to the re-located venue at Wembley, the journey could be more than twice as long with the estimated journey time for that route set at 70-80 minutes.

London 2012 Olympic officials say the new estimated journey times are realistic, but admit they are on the conservative side. They say athletes, officials and the media need to be able to plan their journeys and the times are a worst case scenario at peak times, rather than the times the journeys may take.

Here are the latest estimated journey times from the Olympic Park:

Hyde Park for triathlon  (55 minutes)

Horse Guards Parade for beach volleyball  (45 minutes)

Earls Court for volleyball  (70 minutes)

Eton Dorney for rowing (100 minutes)

Greenwich Park for equestrian (35 minutes)

Hampton Court for road cycling time trial (110 minutes)

Lord's cricket ground for archery (55 minutes)

Wimbledon for the tennis (80 minutes)

The Mall for road cycling (60 minutes)

Lee Valley White Water Centre for canoeing (40 minutes)

Hadleigh Farm for mountain biking (80 minutes)

ExCeL for  table tennis, taekwondo, weightlifting, wrestling and boxing (30 minutes)

North Greenwich Arena for basketball finals and gymnastics (25 minutes).

Spectators, of course, will have to use public transport and the guidelines on transport times between venues is suitably vague.

According to the official Locog journey time finder, travelling between Olympic Park at Stratford to Wembley Stadium will take between one to two hours from station to station.

Officials advise adding on an extra 30 minutes for security checks and walking to the venue.

London 2012 Olympics diary: Locog hit back in Steve Ovett tickets row

Missing: Steve Ovett (Photo: AFP)

London Olympics organisers say they are mystified by claims by Steve Ovett that they turned down his request for a couple of tickets for the Olympic 1500m final in exchange for taking part in a photo-call at the official ticket launch in March.

Ovett, Lord Coe’s great rival on the track in the 1970s and ‘80s, was invited to fly to London from his home in Australia to join fellow Olympic gold medallists Carl Lewis, Nadia Comaneci and Rebecca Adlington for the promotional event.

But, as reported in last week’s Olympic Diary, he says he pulled out after his ticket request was rejected. However, the London organising committee (Locog) has painted a very different picture of the negotiations with Ovett’s management company over the terms of his appearance in London and says the former runner may not be aware of the scale of its demands.

Locog has correspondence to prove that it agreed to pay Ovett £10,000 for his single day of promotional work (Locog’s original, smaller cash offer was turned down by Ovett’s team), plus business-class travel and accommodation.

The reply from Ovett’s management company was that he would also require four tickets for his children for all nine days of the track and field competition in the Olympic Stadium, at which point Locog decided to pull the plug.

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Russian plans to turn London’s Marble Arch into a £10 million party venue, dubbed ‘Marble Archski’, during next summer’s Olympics are set to be turned down by Westminster City Council.

Council offers have recommended that planning permission be refused for the ‘Sochi World’ project, which was meant to showcase the 2014 Winter Olympics with a 700-capacity ice rink as well as an exhibition centre, bars and restaurants.

The plans ran into huge opposition from local residents angry at the disruption and overcrowding that would result, and there were also strong objections from transport chiefs, the Metropolitan Police and English Heritage.

The Russian organisers now have the headache of finding an alternative venue with many of the capital’s prime sites having already been booked by other countries.

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Dame Kelly Holmes believes former world champion Caster Semenya has made a smart move in hiring 800 metres great Maria Mutola as her new coach as the South African runner begins her countdown to 2012.

Holmes credits the time she spent training with Mutola in South Africa in 2003 as a key factor in her double triumph at the Athens Olympics the following year.

“She’s the most focused athlete I’ve ever known,” says Holmes. “I thought I was focused, but she is really scary. She’s just so blinkered. I don’t know what her coaching ability is, but for Caster to have that energy around her and to be working with someone who beat everyone that was thrown at her and achieved so much, it has to be the perfect move for her.”

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Londoners hoping to make a few extra quid next summer by renting out their homes to Olympic visitors face a confusing postcode lottery when it comes to council rules on short-term lets.

Research carried out by Holiday Lettings, the UK’s leading holiday lets website, has revealed a huge disparity in regulations, with some councils levying hefty charges for short-let planning permission while others imposing no charge at all.

The strictest rules appear to be in Westminster, where the council is charging £335 for planning permission with the threat of a £20,000 fine for non-compliance.

By contrast, host boroughs Tower Hamlets and Hackney say residents require no permission to rent their  homes.

A Holiday Lettings spokeswoman said: “This is a huge opportunity for Londoners to support the Olympic effort and we must question why some councils are objecting to this.”

London 2012 Olympics: Team GB could prove lucrative for Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and the BOA

Brothers in arms: Rooney and Giggs could be a big attraction for Team GB at London 2012

There are three men who are genuine considerations for the over-23 spots in the Team GB football side at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

David Beckham is a shoe-in if only for the publicity and ticket sales he will generate.

But the other two names will convert the Team GB ‘Dream Team’ into a Team GB ‘Redeem Team’. They are Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs.

Both have appeared in the newspapers for the wrong reasons in recent years, with front page exposure about their private pursuits not nearly as welcome as the back page coverage of their sporting heroics.

What these players do in their personal lives may ultimately be of little relevance to their football skills, but competing in the London 2012 Olympics will surely give them an opportunity to present to the world a different side to their tabloid personas.

The London Olympic organisers need to shift a million football tickets and having such high profile personalities as part of the home football side is crucial to generating publicity- good or bad.

They certainly will guide the structure of play on the pitch. The degree of influence in helping to mould a cohesive national team – welcoming Welsh players Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey for instance – could enhance their leadership credentials.

Commercially the role is also a winner for the players. Technically they aren't paid for their time in the Olympic team, but some players have sponsor bonuses in their contracts that could be quite lucrative. Just being able to call themselves “an Olympian'” is a motivating factor.

The BOA is also in an interesting position if these players are selected for Team GB.

The bosses have already set lofty moral standards. We have seen them remain strong in the rejection of any athlete who has served a drug suspension, but the BOA's claim that competing for Team GB is a privilege and bears with it higher ethical responsibilities could be questioned by the over-23 player nominations.

Not that the Olympic athletes village is entirely clear of sordid speculation. Inaccessible to the media and the prying eyes of inconvenient spouses, it is fuelled with reports of record condom usage – something that may even shock a professional footballer.

London 2012 Olympics diary: gold medallist Steve Ovett in Olympic tickets snub

Odd: Steve Ovett was asked to promote tickets just as long as he didn't ask for any himself (Photo: Rex Features)

While Lord Coe can claim to be the world’s most high-profile ex-athlete, his old running rival Steve Ovett would appear to be the forgotten man.

Ovett, who beat Coe to the 800 metres gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, was invited earlier this year to take part in the 2012 Olympic ticket launch in London, joining fellow Olympic champions Carl Lewis, Nadia Comaneci and Rebecca Adlington.

Since he now lives in Australia, he was offered free travel and accommodation but was told he would not be paid a fee.

He replied that  he was happy to help out but wondered whether he might be sorted out with a couple of tickets to the 1500 metres final in the Olympic Stadium.

He was shocked to receive a standard letter from the London organising committee acknowledging his ticket application and advising him to apply through the public ballot. Needless to say, he decided to give the ticket launch a miss.

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World champion Dai Greene may still be short of Kriss Akabusi’s British 400 metres hurdles record but he can at least boast another prestigious mark.

While working at a drive-thru McDonalds restaurant in Llanelli in 2003 he and his co-workers broke a company record for the number of cars served with their orders within an hour.

“We served something like 140 cars and were told it was a record,” says Greene proudly. “You could say I’ve gone from quarter-pounder to quarter-miler.”

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Worshippers of Zoroastrianism will be reassured that their spiritual needs will be well catered for at London 2012, with organisers promising the most diverse network of multi-faith chaplains ever seen at a Games.

Nearly 200 chaplains are currently being recruited to offer support and counselling in the athletes’ village and venues as well as the main workplace areas for volunteers and employees.

Under the contract with the International Olympic Committee, host cities are required to provide chaplains for the five main religions – Christianity, Islam, Hindusim, Buddhism, Judaism – but London will be going further by offering chaplains in Sikhism, Jainism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism, which is estimated to have just 200,000 followers  worldwide.

“London is so diverse that for the last four years we have been working with the nine faiths that are usually recognised in the inter-faith network,” says Rev Canon Duncan Green, the London 2012 head of multi-faith services.

While providing specialist support in their own religions, the army of chaplains will be expected to work across different faiths.

Green said: “What we are actually saying is that whatever faith you are, we will cater for you, especially in our workforce because our workforce can be drawn from the UK, which is very ethnically diverse, or from all over the world.”

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Jemma Simpson, who topped the UK 800 metres rankings in 2010 but was hampered by injury problems this summer, has appealed against the decision of UK Athletics to drop her from the Lottery funding programme.

And quite right, too. Despite her health problems, Simpson still managed to finish third in this year’s domestic rankings and ran under the two-minute barrier, the benchmark for world-class 800m running, on two occasions.

But, bizarrely, she has axed from the World Class Performance Programme just nine months before the start of the Games.

Even stranger, Tasha Danvers, the injury-plagued Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist, remains on “podium” funding, despite having not managed a single race in 2011 and just one race in 2010.

London 2012 Olympics diary: Government clamps down on ambush advertising at Games

One in the eye: Linford Christie wore Puma contact lenses at the Atlanta Games

The Government has expanded its advertising and trading regulations during the London 2012 Olympic Games to specifically outlaw spectators from displaying any form of advertising on the human body.

The law is to prevent advertising stunts such as when Linford Christie wore contact lenses of shoe brand Puma in competition with the Olympic sponsor Reebok at the Atlanta Games, or the spectator who invaded the diving venue in Athens with a company name penned across his chest.

In a tightening of the already detailed rules designed to prevent ambush marketing during the Games, the Government said yesterday: “We will make additional changes to prohibit advertising on the human body.” Anybody who breaks the rule could face a fine of £20,000.

The Government has a raft of restrictions for individuals and groups concerning advertising and trading in and around Olympic venues and some public places like the "live sites" where big screens will broadcast Olympic competition.

Advertising industry bodies had argued to the Government that the regulations should specifically ban tattooing the body with permanent or temporary ink to help protect Olympic sponsors.

More than 40 official sponsors have paid more than £700 million to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) to help with their £2.15 billion operating budget.

Other small changes that will be made include allowing the deliveries of essential non-perishable goods like petrol as well as perishable goods during work hours. Cafes and restaurants that have outside spaces with tables and chairs will now require additional authorisation by the Olympic Delivery Authority.

The Government said: “During Games time there will be considerably more footfall and we want to provide clear routes to venues.”

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Katherine Endacott, who won a Commonwealth Games 100m silver medal and a 4x100m gold in Delhi, has converted her strong acceleration and speed to become a bobsleigh brakewoman in an attempt to make the TeamGB squad for the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Endacott, along with other members of the squad, has been training at the Michael Johnson centre with the Dallas Cowboys NFL team and Jeremy Wariner and will continue to use those American facilities as a summer base.

Performance Director Gary Anderson said the 12 days spent at the centre were inspiring, especially as it was during the time of the NFL lock-out and players used their own money to pay to train there.

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The glitzy British Olympic Ball last Friday night raised nearly £750,000 – enough to support over 30 Team GB athletes in their London Olympic Games quest.

While comedians Miranda Hart and Stephen Fry had to think quickly on their feet for the first ten minutes because of teleprompter failure, the highlight for the 2,100 strong guest list – including winners of 83 Olympic gold medals – was an energetic Sir Tom Jones and his enthusiastic backing band performing well into the early hours.

At one point, Sir Tom raised the golden Olympic torch saying how excited he was about the Games and exhorted: “We better win this bloody thing this summer.” One person paid £80,000 for hospitality packages for four people to the opening ceremony, the men’s 100m finals, the women’s gymnastic finals, a tour of the athletes’ village and adidas TeamGB kit.

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Olympic organisers are sensitive to the security concerns of their multi-million pound Technology Operations Centre, which is mission control for the timing, results and technology systems during the Games.

At the launch this week, Locog chief information officer Gerry Pennell asked journalists not to reveal the TOC's location. Nor would he reveal where the back up system is housed in case of any ongoing security issues.

Around 450 technology specialists will man the centre, although there will be a total of 5,000 experts including staff from sponsors Atos, BT, Cisco, Acer and Samsung on hand to ensure that the technology remains glitch-free.

Ironically, the timing of the launch coincided with the beginning of Blackberry's technical woes – a timely reminder of the communications issues London faces during Games time.

Mobile phone operators across the UK have formed a consortium and are working on ensuring Wifi in London is as robust as can be.

"We have worked closely with BT and the mobile operators to make sure there is enough infrastructure to provide a good level of service during the Games," Pennell said of mobile phone coverage.

"But there will always be moments when the demand is so huge in sporting events that not everybody can get access."

OPLC has questions to answer over Olympic Stadium shambles

So, the Olympic Stadium, clanger or carve-up? Nearly 72 hours after the dramatic decision to abandon months of negotiations with West Ham we have little choice to make up our own minds.

The Olympic Park Legacy Company, the key body in the process, has had three days to issue a statement or offer some explanation for why it tore up a year’s work, but has still not uttered a word.

Sports minister Hugh Robertson has spoken at length about the threat of “legal paralysis” that prompted the decision, and the OPLC communications team say that for now the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, is “taking the lead”.

Not for the first time in the tortuous and flawed history of the stadium, that is a long way from being a satisfactory response.

The Olympic Stadium is a £500m public asset that will now have at least another £95m of taxpayer money spent upgrading it so it is fit to be rented to a football club.

Given that level of public funding the events of the last few weeks deserve proper explanation from OPLC chairman Baroness Ford and chief executive Andrew Altman. Granted, the pair inherited an ill-considered mess when they took on the stadium job, but we could still do with some answers.

Throughout Ford and Altman have been adamant that their process would be robust and would deliver a tenant into the stadium and a return to the taxpayer. Yet 10 months from the Olympic opening ceremony they still can’t tell us who will be using the stadium, how many seats there will be, what facilities it will have – beyond a track – or how much the return will be.

The OPLC say that Ford may be available to discuss what happened, and what happens next, next week. Here’s a few questions she, the government and the Olympic authorities might consider

Does the “legal paralysis” explanation really hold-water?

Tottenham and Leyton Orient were challenging the terms of Newham’s £40m loan to West Ham, claiming it breached European state-aid rules But from the outset the OPLC insisted that its decisions would be water-tight and that legal challenges had been anticipated, so they should have seen it coming.

Perhaps they did. Just 10 days ago I was assured by a senior OPLC source that the Spurs-Orient challenges were “baloney” and that the legal advice was unequivocal. The OPLC would win.

So what happened to turn Tottenham and Orient’s pile of “baloney” into “legal paralysis”? Could it be that new evidence provided by Orient made it far more likely that Newham-West Ham and the OPLC would lose? Or that the anonymous complaint to the European Commission had not been anticipated?

At the very least the OPLC’s legal due diligence looks questionable. If the Newham – West Ham finance package were to be declared illegal there would be no way back for the Hammers or the OPLC.

Legal sources have told me the same lawyers, Eversheds, have advised the OPLC on the bid process and the judicial review. Little wonder then that they keep getting the same answers.

There are a couple of other possible explanations for Monday’s Olympic-class U-turn

Could it be that the 2017 World Athletics Championship bid, a priority for Sebastian Coe as well as Robertson, became the most important factor in government thinking?

You might think that a case of the tail wagging a stadium-sized dog, but don’t underestimate the importance attached to securing a meaningful athletics legacy. It has driven every step of this process

One other thought, a question that West Ham might be able to help answer. Is it possible that the OPLC feared that Karren Brady and Co were considering walking away, or at the very least re-negotiating the terms of their deal?

With the government committed to a track come what may Spurs were definitively out of the race, making West Ham the sole bidder in an uncompetitive market.

In those circumstances I would have tried to renegotiate. Maybe they did too. And maybe that’s the real reason why the OPLC is now preparing tender documents for a £2m a-year rental agreement, with West Ham at the front of the queue.

London 2012 Olympics: Government buys time for Olympic Stadium

Finally a sensible decision in what has been a drawn-out, fraught affair concerning the future of the Olympic Stadium after the London 2012 Olympic Games.

On the surface, this latest decision by the Government to collapse the sale to West Ham, retain control of the stadium in public hands and offer it out to tender on a lease arrangement appears muddled, a backward step and a costly multi million pound exercise for the taxpayer.

It certainly cements a feeling that the Olympic Park Legacy Company has been a dithering quango. But it allows the Government its most needed commodity – time. Time to decide if an athletics track, combined with rock concerts and a football tenant or two actually works. Time to host the 2017 World Athletics Championships, if London fends off rivals Doha. Time that eliminates what had been the increasing financial demands of Tottenham Hotspur in order to drop their legal challenge and the noisy machinations of Leyton Orient.

And with that time, comes the Government's most precious need: control. They had been losing control of this entire issue – especially when the European Commission was dragged into the dispute (through an anonymous complaint about Newham Council providing funding to West Ham to secure the original deal).

Some £17 million in sweeteners to Tottenham, via the Mayor, are still on offer until midnight Oct 19 for the club to drop their judicial review – a moot point now. Tottenham have won few friends at the political level for their manoeuvring and the club is likely to find strong support for West Ham if it also decides to tender for the stadium lease.

As insiders have clearly pointed out: "West Ham are making all the right noises now".

The Government is looking to rent out the stadium, which will be reconfigured to 60,000 seats from the 80,000 it will have at Games time, to a football tenant, for around £2 million a year. That leaves about £3 million a year in operating costs for the taxpayer, possibly picked up by renting out to an entertainment provider in the summer.

But any such Government subsidies might work out to be a bargain in the long run.  If the Government offers a short tenancy it means that the entire process and effectiveness of combining athletics, concerts, naming rights and football can be revisited down the track, beyond the post-Olympic Games golden aura – and reconsidered in more buoyant economic times.

In the meantime, the effectiveness and efficiencies of the OPLC will come under scrutiny for its waste of monies in this mess. The 14-strong board is led by  chair Baroness Margaret Ford  who had promised on her appointment:  "It is cast in stone that we leave a Grand Prix athletics stadium. But what I have opened the book around is the other kind of value we can add to this stadium". That promise is looking shaky indeed.

London 2012 Olympics: Do we really want drug cheats to wear the Team GB vest in London?

Hot topic: should reformed drug cheat David Millar (l) be allowed to help world champion Mark Cavendish (r) win Olympic gold in London?

The big question for British sports fans is: do you want people who have cheated, lied, sneakily pumped themselves full of drugs, not just once as a mistaken error, but in a systemised, deliberate series of actions, to represent the country?

Or is it okay that because these athletes are good at what they do (and who knows how much of this has been influenced by their previous drug-taking) that they are worthy of wearing the TeamGB vest?

Clearly the door has been opened for athletes like Dwain Chambers and David Millar to legally challenge the lifetime ban imposed by the British Olympic Association in the wake of LaShawn Merritt's successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

And in the end they might legally, and technically, earn the right to compete at the London 2012 Olympics. But is this morally and ethically the right thing to do?

There are lots of justifications that readers have suggested – like allowing athletes the chance for redemption, not to keep punishing them once they have served their time and perhaps, most potently, the fear that other countries will have their disgraced, duplicitous athletes competing at the London Olympics, so why not the UK?

But this last argument simply reduces the UK to the lower standards of other countries.

And why shouldn't authorities here decide the calibre of people and the appropriate standards of conduct that are worthy for such a privileged berth? Certainly the large majority of athletes believe this to be the case, and more than 95 per cent of Olympians support the BOA stance.

Yet a Telegraph poll, which elicited one of the website's most popular responses, showed that 53 per cent of readers thought Dwain Chambers should be allowed to compete at the London Olympics.

The World Anti Doping Agency had previously made an interesting pitch to CAS, saying that the reduction of sanctions for athletes who provide information about their suppliers has not been as successful as anticipated.

They had been enticing athletes to provide information about doping, the deal being that their sentences would be reduced to six months for the information.  But these sentences still fell under the International Olympic Committee's ban for the next Games (the very ban that has collapsed after the Merritt test case).

The argument, made before the Merritt ruling, was interesting because, with WADA's detection not progressing at the pace they would like, it could have been interpreted as a request for more lenient sentences for whistlebowers, which would then have allowed them to appear in London.

The Merritt ruling now keeps the incentive in place for athletes like Millar to come clean about their drug taking with the offer of possible Olympic places for those who tell the truth.

On Tuesday, UK Anti Doping is launching its "Clean Sport" mantra at Trafalgar Square, which now has a hollow note. The only certainty that will come out of this is that the nine-month lead-up to the London Olympics will be enveloped by possible legal challenges from Chambers and Millar.

London 2012 Olympic diary: Stars out for a ball, sponsors ignore public transport and Redgrave reveals son slept through Sydney 2000

Having a ball: Nell McAndrew will be among the guests at the BOA's Olympic ball

The shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has turned her experienced political hand to helping Labour's Ken Livingstone in his bid to oust Conservative Boris Johnson as Mayor of London. That will make for some interesting Olympic board meetings as the Games nears and as the electioneering ratchets up. Both Jowell and Johnson are on the board. Interesting too that one of Livingstone's key men at City Hall when he was in power was Neale Coleman, who was retained by Johnson as his Olympics advisor when he took office.

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More than 2,100 supporters of next year's Games will attend the British Olympic Association's Olympic ball at Olympia tonight. Will Prince Harry turn up like he did last year? The Princess Royal will be there. Tickets are sold out with Tom Jones, Stephen Fry and Miranda Hart topping the bill. Te red carpet will be awash with star athletes in their most sparkling outfits. Ex Spice Girl Mel C, model Nell McAndrew, musician Katie Melua and world superbike champion James Toseland are also attending.

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Ticket holders for the London 2012 Games have been assured by Locog chairman Sebastian Coe that they will be able to give tickets to friends and family. Strict security requirements state that ticket holders have to attend the venue even if they have given their ticket to a family member. However, Lord Coe said the rule won't be policed. "We will only ask for identification and trace back the owners of the tickets if we have a very serious security issue or there are particular suspicions about certain seats or tickets," he said.

"Common sense will apply and perhaps if the ticket holders can't be there for some reason, the others in the party should bring some id with them." Locog have confirmed the next tranche of 1.5 million Games tickets for sports apart from football will be released in April. There are still around one million football tickets available, which will go on sale in December.

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Sir Steve Redgrave recalled yesterday how one family member missed his moment of glory at Sydney 2000. Son Zak, then aged two, was  waving at him from the stands just before the race. But apparently the excitement got the better of him and he fell asleep in the arms of Redgrave's mother Sheila, despite her screaming at the top of her lungs and jumping up and down throughout. "He missed the whole race," said Redgrave.

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Marble Archski: the Russians will be promoting the Winter Games in Sochi in central London during the 2012 Olympics

Olympic hospitality agents Prestige Ticketing this week unveiled a £7.5 million three-storey glass atrium structure alongside the Olympic stadium for the wining and dining of 3,000 people at a time who have paid up to £4,500 for each ticket. But that pales against the £10 million London Olympic extravaganza unveiled by the Russians at Marble Arch – nicknamed the "Archski". Plans are for an ice skating rink next to a special purpose festival hall for ballet, opera and soirees with Vladimir Putin, all to promote the Sochi Winter Olympics. Westminster Council has received objections that the five-month closure of the island site will cause significant disruption. Locals are also upset that resident parking around the Langham Hotel will be suspended in favour of coach parking for the VIP guests of Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola. Sponsors generally are shying away from using London's public transport, including the acclaimed javelin train from St Pancras to Stratford (which takes just seven minutes) and have booked air conditioned coaches to transport their guests to Olympic competition using the special Olympic lanes.

London 2012 Olympics: putting the new Olympic track to the test

Today I ran on the London 2012 Olympic track – that sea of red rubber that will next year bear the weight of much faster, skilled and experienced champions such as Usain Bolt, Tyson Gay, Allison Felix and Sally Pearson.

On the start line of the 100m I was trying to channel them all. I had the obligatory chain around my neck (how do they race with jewellery swinging like a pendulum?) and  I attempted to concentrate, while being fitted with a video camera on my head: keep head down, power off the track, pump arms.

That was until the starters, Seb Coe and Hugh Robertson decided it would be a 400m race – actually 500m. So my moment on the track became a concerted jog all the way around to take in the atmosphere of an empty stadium that appeared anything but soul-less.

This Olympic Stadium is cosy, with the seating at ground level creating a feeling of intimacy other 80,000 capacity stadiums lack. All of the seats were covered with biodegradable seat covers to keep them pristine, but it had the impact of softening the black seats to grey – which looked classy. The infield was green, and throwing circles still filled with water to ensure levels.

Down the back straight there was a particularly robust headwind that had swirled around to a sidewind by the front straight. If the London Olympic organisers want world records at the stadium they may have to rethink the stadium wrap that currently features a bunting style twisted triangle look, rather than a solid wrap.

Yet a couple of stadium workers revealed that while it has been quite windy on most days over the past few months the prevailing direction has tended to be a tailwind for the 100m sprinters.

Earlier in the day Ato Boldon rightly pointed out to me that as a civilian I wouldn't know much about the hardness of the track or its technical abilities, but I did ask the experts, the Mondo company specialists who spent 75 days laying it down. And what they said Ato won't like. Instead of being rock hard for the sprinters so that they can notch up slick world records, the track has been made slightly softer to deal with the complaints of distance runners who previously found the Mondo track injury-inducing.

So how did it feel? Well through my joggers (no high heels or spikes allowed) the track felt much harder than I anticipated, less spongy than the tartan tracks I had experienced, but surprisingly it offered quite a bit of bounce. Mondo project manager Joe Hoekstra described the track nap as being manufactured to produce a rebound – almost like a rubber band being stretched.

He said while the endurance runners won't be disappointed, the sprinters will have finished their race before they even think about it. So while I puffed a bit more than I wanted, I got the chance to see more than I expected. This was one experience I didn't want to finish too soon.

London 2012 Olympics: Government and Boris should lobby IOC for more British media passes

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has taken umbrage at the lack of local newspaper journalists with accreditation for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

This week, when the International Olympic Committee is in London for its penultimate inspection of the Olympic planning process, Johnson will, hopefully, lobby the Lausanne-based mandarins for more media access.

At the moment the numbers of British print journalists and photographers given accreditation to cover the London Olympics is 530.  That number includes the 90 journalists and photographers from the Press Association, which is committed to providing all of the regional and local newspapers with  extensive coverage.

If we break it down further, the number of  journalists for the whole of  Britain's newspaper industry with "E" accreditations  (unlimited access) is just 270 .

Now let's see. Pick another country, say China. How many journalist and photographer accreditations do they have?  It's 500. Roughly the same.  So for a country with limited media freedom the numbers of accreditations are in line with Britain, which has the most robust competitive media market in the world.

The IOC will say that they have slashed the numbers of accreditations for China, as well as other countries like the USA and Australia compared with the Beijing Olympics. This in order to boost the numbers for Britain, who's total is about double the norm for an away Games. But the numbers are still pitifully low.

Locog and the IOC repeatedly say there are 27,000 journalists covering the London 2012 Olympics. But most of these are broadcast technicians, working behind the scenes ensuring the global television coverage reaches the four billion viewers. The total number of newspaper journalists and photographers from across the world is capped at just 5,500 because this is the total number London organisers factor in their provision of media services.

I have been on a committee for the British Olympic Association (along with other representatives from national, regional and photographic media) to try to decide how the accreditations are distributed. It hasn't been easy.

Over 4,000 applications were received, meaning just one in eight was successful. Essentially, priority was given to publications which face constant deadlines.  Some of the weekly newspapers and specialist magazines have a more intimate relationship with the athletes and don't need such immediate access to interviews after a race. Johnson is lobbying for these titles, and rightly so.

Perhaps the Olympics Minister,  Hugh Robertson, should be in there too, lobbying for far greater access for all of the print media in this country.