Crowds in London's Trafalgar Square react to the announcement that London will host the 2012 Olympics. The London team overhauled long-time favourites Paris yesterday, as well as Madrid, Moscow and New York to win the race to stage the lucrative sports extravaganza. - REUTERS PHOTOS
LONDON (Reuters):
SUPPORTERS OF London's bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games reacted with joy and surprise to the capital's shock victory yesterday while France struggled to comprehend how Paris had lost.
"We are taking home the biggest prize in sport," said bid leader Sebastian Coe, twice an Olympic champion on the track, after London beat Paris by four votes - 54-50.
"I always knew this was going to be close ... I am absolutely ecstatic. It is just the most fantastic opportunity to do everything we ever dreamed of in British sport."
Queen Elizabeth sent her "warmest congratulations" to Coe. She hosted a dinner for an Olympic evaluation commission at Buckingham Palace in February to show her support for the bid.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair hailed the victory as "a momentous day for London".
"I couldn't bear to watch (the final announcement). It is not often in this job that you get to punch the air, do a little jig and embrace the person standing next to you."
CONGRATULATIONS
Late yesterday that person was likely to be French president Jacques Chirac when the leaders meet at the G8 Summit in Edinburgh. Any words of congratulation or commiseration there are likely to be uttered through gritted teeth.
In a statement, President Chirac congratulated London before thanking the team behind the French bid for their "commitment, professionalism and the spirit of fair play that had always guided it".
Paris had been the favourite throughout the bidding process and its failure, its third in 20 years, left French supporters floundering for an explanation.
"It's hard ... it's a great disappointment, a great emptiness around us all," said French Sports Minister Jean-Francois Lamour, a former Olympic fencing champion.
"We gave the best we could, we spoke from our guts, with our heart but it seems it didn't convince the IOC."
Thierry Rey, another former Olympic judo champion, summed up the sense of incredulity." "We don't understand ... what more could we have done? I wonder if sometimes people don't want us." Henri Serandour, president of the French Olympic Committee, said he did not understand how the votes that had been cast for Madrid went to London after the Spanish capital was eliminated.
"I thought that the Latin countries which supported Madrid would come over to Paris in numbers."
In London the news was greeted by a huge roar from a crowd packed into Trafalgar Square.
A ticker-tape explosion surrounded Nelson's Column, standing proud in the bi-centenary year of Britain's greatest naval victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets.
The sense of surprise was palpable as it was in Singapore among the British delegation.
CLOSE ELECTION
"This is so special," said Britain's four-time Olympic rowing champion Matthew Pinsent. "When they opened the envelope I was dreading the word 'Paris' coming out, so I am stunned.
"It was four votes between winning and losing - as close as our race in Athens."
Simon Clegg, head of the British Olympic Association, said: "Tonight is a night for partying and tomorrow the work starts."
Supporters of Moscow, New York and Madrid, eliminated early in the race, were phlegmatic.
The Russian capital, which hosted the Games in 1980, was the rank outsider after a damning IOC evaluation report last month but mayor Yuri Luzhkov said it would bid again.
"We are not disappointed, just the opposite," Luzhkov said.
"We have received assurances that Moscow is truly a modern and fast developing city which is capable of staging major international competitions on a highest level and to prove that we are going to battle for the right to stage the Olympic Games in 2016."
NO REPEAT BID
They are unlikely to be up against New York after officials there hinted there would be no repeat bid.
"I thought now was the time, we had everything going for us ... the spirit, the money, the land was available. It was a unique opportunity for the city of New York," said the city's mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
Madrid led the voting after two rounds but became the third city to be eliminated.
"We thought the third round would be key," said Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, former grand slam tennis champion and member of the Spanish delegation.
"We knew we were almost there but it didn't happen. I hope there will be another opportunity because I think Madrid deserves it."
