British soccer player and London Olympic Games ambassador David Beckham lights Olympic torch

The flame for the London Olympics burned brightly on British soil on Friday after David Beckham stepped off a special flight from the Games birthplace of Greece to light a cauldron with a golden torch.

The British Airways ‘Firefly’ Flight 2012 from Athens landed on time at the Culdrose naval air station with Britain’s Princess Anne, Games chairman Seb Coe and the former England soccer captain among the delegation.

The flame will start a 70-day torch relay around Britain on Saturday, with triple Olympic gold medallist sailorBen Ainslie carrying it on the first leg from Land’s End on the south-west tip of England.

The Games start on July 27.

London mayor Boris Johnson, his mane of unruly blond hair trimmed for the occasion, declared the moment to be “a big accelerator of the heartbeat”.

“We’ve got 70 days to go,” he told reporters before heading back to London on the golden-liveried plane.

“For someone in my position this is the final furlong for us and that’s when the horses start to change places and so this is going to make the difference now between a good Games and a great Games.”

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg welcomed the Olympic torch on behalf of the British government on a clear evening in marked contrast to the torrential rain left behind in Athens.

“It is a fantastic moment for us, particularly at a time when there is so much anxiety and concern about the economy and other things, to be uplifted by this whole experience and to be able to showcase ourselves to the world as an open-hearted, generous, dynamic, positive country,” he told the BBC.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the country as a whole.”

British soccer player and London 2012 Olympic Games ambassador David Beckham reacts after lighting the Olympic torch with a cauldron after arriving at RNAS Culdrose base near Helston in Cornwall, south west England May 18, 2012.REUTERS/Toby Melville

CUSTARD COMET

The arrival of the flame, with Princess Anne carrying it in a special lantern down the steps from the plane, was covered live on Britain’s main BBC station with the plane circling overhead before landing to fit in with the schedules.

“It’s only when the torch comes into your possession that you realise,” the Princess said as she handed the lantern to one of the special security team who will guard it.

Beckham soon lit the Olympic torch and ignited a cauldron with the flame, which was then due to be transferred to Lands End for Saturday’s relay start.

Johnson said the manner of the flame’s arrival bodes well.

“The plane landed bang on time, in fact it was early,” he declared enthusiastically.

“We circled over Cornwall like a custard-coloured comet and that is a metaphor in my view for everything that has happened so far in the London Olympics. It’s been either on time or ahead of time and it’s under budget.”

On Thursday, the flame had been handed over at a damp ceremony in the Athens marble stadium that hosted the first modern Games in 1896.

The flame, lit from the sun’s rays at the home of the ancient Games in Olympia a week ago, was presented under grey and rainy skies to former Olympian Princess Anne by the president of the Hellenic Olympic Committee Spyros Capralos.

Coe, who will head off to Munich on Saturday to watch his beloved Chelsea play Bayern Munich in theChampions League final, was confident the torch relay would light the fire for anyone still ambivalent about the Games.

“It does have a big impact,” he said.

“I saw the test event the other day with a cardboard torch going from Leicester to Peterborough and they (the spectators) were three and four deep on the pavement, in the little villages.

“And every week I get letters from people who are talking about the things they are doing to mark the fact the torch is coming through. There’s an emotional connect with this that I’m not sure all torch relays have got.”

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London 2012 Olympic Football tickets go back on sale.

Tickets for the London 2012 Olympic Football Tournament are now on sale on a first come, first served basis.

Team GB coaches Hope Powell and Stuart Pearce pictured at Wembley Stadium, one of the six venues used for the London 2012 Football competition.

In the UK and within the EU, approximately 1.5 million tickets are available through the London 2012 ticketing website. Sales will take place on a ‘live’ basis, with payment taken immediately. 

Prices start at £20 for adults, with ‘pay your age’ prices for young people aged 16 and under, and £16 tickets for seniors aged 60 and over available for most sessions.

Tickets are available for Team GB fixtures and all rounds of the competition, with matches taking place at the City of Coventry Stadium, Hampden Park, Millennium Stadium, Old Trafford, St James’ Park and Wembley Stadium.

LOCOG CEO Paul Deighton commented: ‘The Olympic Football Tournament features some of the world’s best young and up and coming players in the men’s game and the cream of the women’s game.

'With ticket prices for adults starting at £20 and our great special prices for young people and those over 60, I’m sure for many these tickets will be the perfect Christmas present.'
Team GB fixtures announced
Earlier this month the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) announced where Team GB will be playing their group fixtures. The men’s team, coached by Stuart Pearce, will begin their London 2012 campaign at Old Trafford on Thursday 26 July, followed by Wembley Stadium on Sunday 29 July. Their final group game will be at the Millennium Stadium on Wednesday 1 August.
Coached by Hope Powell, the women’s team will kick off the tournament on Wednesday 25 July at the Millennium Stadium, with their following match at the same venue on Saturday 28 July. Their final group stage match will take place on Tuesday 31 July at Wembley Stadium.
The official draw for the Olympic Football Tournament will take place on 24 April 2012 at Wembley Stadium, when all group fixtures will be decided for all venues.
Tickets are also available via telephone on 0844 847 2012. As a proud sponsor of London 2012, only Visa (debit, credit and prepaid) can be used to purchase tickets.

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London ceremony must be over by midnight: IOC

The opening ceremony of next year's London Olympics must finish by midnight so athletes will be encouraged to march and still get to bed at a reasonable hour, the IOC said Friday.

Denis Oswald, head of the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission for London, said arrangements should also be made to allow athletes to leave before the end of the ceremony.

Some athletes at recent Olympic opening ceremonies have complained they have to stand for hours as the show ran over the scheduled time. Thousands of athletes from more than 200 countries will be marching into London's Olympic Stadium on July 27, 2012.

The London ceremony, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Danny Boyle, is expected to start around 9 p.m.

"We insisted the ceremony should not finish after midnight so the athletes can get to the Olympic village quickly," Oswald said at the close of a three-day visit to check on games' preparations. "They can even leave the opening ceremony before the end if they wish to do so."

The length of the ceremony will also affect the 80,000 spectators trying to get home before public transport closes at 1:30 a.m.

Many Olympic athletes choose not to take part in opening ceremonies, especially those competing on the following day.

"It's a choice that you make but we would like to have an opening ceremony with as many athletes as possible, and that's why we insisted that the ceremony would be over at midnight at the latest," Oswald said.

Paul Deighton, chief executive of London organizing committee LOCOG, said athletes should have little problem getting in and out of the stadium because the village is located within walking distance of the Olympic Park in east London.

"The timing and logistics work very much in our favor," he said.

The IOC commission made its next-to-last visit to London before the Olympics. The final inspection will take place from March 28-30.

"We have once again been impressed by the overall level of planning and by the results of the first group of test events that were held this summer," Oswald said.

It was the panel's first visit since the riots that swept London in August, violence that tarnished the international image of the host city less than a year before the games.

Oswald said the riots had been brought "under control very quickly."

"It's something you often find in large cities, but I don't think that this has put any negative image on London or the games," he said.

The IOC panel also received an update on transportation plans for the Games, a priority issue because of the huge stress that will be put on the city's already stretched public transit system.

"I can say that at this stage a lot of progress has been made and a lot of additional information has been given," Oswald said. "This is a situation we will have to follow very cautiously until the end."

On a separate issue, Oswald said the IOC supports the British Olympic Association's right to enforce a lifetime Olympic ban on British doping offenders. Among those covered by the rule are sprinter Dwain Chambers and cyclist David Millar.

"We fully understand that the BOA has that rule and has had it for a number of years," Oswald said. "We fully respect the autonomy of the BOA to establish this eligibility rule."

On Thursday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport threw out an IOC rule that would have banned any athlete with a doping sanction of more than six months from competing in London. The verdict cleared American 400-meter runner LaShawn Merritt to defend his Olympic title next year.

Oswald said the CAS ruling wouldn't weaken the anti-doping effort in London because the IOC rule was only adopted in 2008 and had not yet been applied at any summer games. More than 5,000 athletes will be tested during the London Games.

"There is no reason to fear any added difficulties as compared to previous competitions," he said. "We have done the best we can to have the cleanest possible games."

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