100 days countdown until London 2012

LONDON: London Olympic organisers will on Wednesday hold a series of events to kick off the Games’ 100-day countdown as preparations for the showpiece event enter the final straight.

The milestone will be marked across the country and internationally with a  host of ceremonial activities and an array of test events to iron out any  operational problems before the flame is lit on July 27.

London 2012 chief executive Paul Deighton insisted that preparations were  on course with dress rehearsals for Wheelchair Rugby, Synchronised Swimming and  Shooting all set to begin on Wednesday.

Olympic fever will spread beyond Britain’s borders as expats around the  globe join in the countdown.

In the United States, former heavyweight boxing champion Lennox Lewis will  lead one hundred cyclists and an open top London double decker bus on a ride  down Miami’s South Beach.

One hundred British Embassies and High Commissions will hold events with  Turkey, Venezuela and New Zealand all entering into the Olympic spirit,  Britain’s Foreign Office revealed on Tuesday.

There will also be a series of 100 metre races at Berlin’s Brandenburg  Gate, the 1984 Olympic Stadium in Sarajevo and in the Palace Square in St  Petersburg.

“I’m delighted that British Embassies around the world have come together  to mark 100 days to go to the opening ceremony of the greatest show on earth,”  said Foreign Office Minister for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Jeremy Browne.

Organiser Deighton insisted the British capital was well-prepared to become  the world’s focal point.

“We are absolutely where we want to be with 100 days to go - we are ready  to welcome the world to London,” he said.

“Millions of people around the UK are getting ready to celebrate the  biggest event in sport.”    Queen Elizabeth II will open the Games, giving London the honour of being  the first city in the modern era to host the Olympics three times, having  already held them in 1908 and 1948.

The event is set to give Britain’s ailing economy a much needed boost, but  the general mood of austerity will be reflected in the Games, albeit to a far  lesser extent than in 1948, when competitors were housed in military barracks  and university dormitories.

Organisers conceded long ago that, despite a budget of £9.3 billion ($14.8  billion, 11.2 billion euros), they would be unable to compete with the  spectacle provided by the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Instead, the opening and closing ceremonies will bring to together the  country’s most creative minds to produce a celebration of Britishness.

Responsibility for the opening ceremony lies with “Slumdog Millionaire”  director Danny Boyle, who has promised a fitting curtain-raiser before 10,500  competitors from 204 countries do battle.

However, two substantial hurdles still loom.

Doubts remain about how London’s already stretched transport system will  cope with ferrying spectators and athletes around the congested city.

Also, there are fears over whether Britain’s security services will be able  to prevent incidents such as the bloody hostage-taking of Israeli athletes at  the 1972 Munich Olympics and the bombing of the 2004 Atlanta Games.

Some £6.5 billion has been spent on modernising the transport system,  including the world’s oldest underground train system, and 48 kilometres (30  miles) of Olympic road lanes should help speed the travel of VIPs.

Security has cast a shadow since the day after London was awarded the  Games, when suicide bombers killed 52 people on the transport system.

Security expert David Hunt, from the Exclusive Analysis think-tank, warned  that the main threat by jihadist militants was likely to come from domestic,  lone wolf actors.

A combined force of more than 40,000 soldiers, police and private security  guards will be mobilised for what Prime Minister David Cameron called the “biggest and most integrated security operation in mainland Britain in our  peacetime history”. - AFP