London Update - Mayor Narrowly Avoids Cycle Crash; Possible Britain Football Team

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, had a narrow escape from a potentially fatal road accident Friday when riding his bicycle just a few miles from the Olympic Park.

Together with a handful of aides, Johnson was testing a new cycle lane in Limehouse when his group was passed by a large truck. The back gate of the truck flew open, catching a parked vehicle which it dragged down the street, narrowly missing the cyclists, including Johnson.

The full incident was caught on closed circuit TV cameras.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8066461.stm

Johnson is expected to announce a new cycle initiative later this week, part of London 2012’s endeavors to stage the “greenest” Games yet.

Although he is known for his enthusiasm for cycling, in Johnson’s first year in office at City Hall, the mayor’s claims for taxi fares have increased eight-fold.

“GB United” Football Announcement This Week

David Triesman, the chairman of the Football Association, English soccer’s governing body, has indicated that an agreement with the U.K.’s three other FAs is close. It would allow British soccer sides to take part in the London Olympics in 2012.

World body FIFA set a May 31 deadline to resolve the impasse with the Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish. They fear that a single, unified Great Britain soccer team in the Olympic tournament would jeopardize their separate status in the World Cup and European championships.

Triesman is believed to have brokered a deal to allow wholly English men’s and women’s teams to represent Britain at the London Games.

Britain, three-time winner of the Olympic football gold medal, has not entered the Olympic tournament since 1972. England’s under-21 men’s and women’s teams both qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but none entered because of opposition from Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast.

“I am happy to say that although the job is not 100 percent done, I'm very close to getting agreement with Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales to ensure we compete in the 2012 Olympics, both women's and men's teams,” Triesman said at an awards function.

“I think it would have been extraordinary to have hosted a tournament as great as the Olympic Games and not to have competed, so I'm very pleased with the work we've been able to do and I hope within a day or two to be able to confirm that the whole of that is done.”

Royal Navy to Provide Anti-Aircraft Cover for Games

One of the world’s most advanced warships may be deployed in the Thames estuary in 2012 to provide anti-aircraft cover to prevent a 9/11-type attack on the London Olympics, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

The Royal Navy has three new Type 45 destroyers – each built at a cost of $1.4 billion - due for service in 2011.

Any one of HMS Daring, Diamond or Dauntless could be anchored outside the capital to use its Principal AntiAir Missile System, which according to the Ministry of Defence is designed “to defend against supersonic, stealthy, highly maneuverable missiles that could use sea-skimming or steep-diving flight profiles approaching in salvos, simultaneously from several directions."

The ships’ Aster missiles are said to be able to hit a moving target the size of a baseball from a range of 20 miles.

“Having a frigate in the Thames is an extremely good idea,” Alex Carlile, a House of Lords anti-terrorism expert, told the newspaper. LOCOG refuses to discuss security issues, and so would not confirm the story, which it described as “speculation."

Jowell: “Delivery Still On Track”

Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, told parliament last week that there have been no delays in delivery of any 2012 construction projects thus far.

“The overall construction program for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games continues on track,” Jowell said in a written answer to an MP’s question, “with no delay in the construction of the Olympic Park or in the construction of the parklands in the North of the Park.

“The delivery contractor, BAM Nuttall, is currently procuring a number of specialist sub-contractors and suppliers through a series of packages and is on track to start delivery of the northern parklands later this spring. The contracts for the hard and soft landscaping of the south park are due for award later in 2009, with on-site work to start in early 2010.”

2012 Stadium Transforms London Skyline

London 2012 chair Sebastian Coe believes the British capital’s Olympic Stadium will be an inspirational venue for competitors from all nations.

“However, most of all it’s going to provide the athletes from Team GB and Paralympics GB with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win gold and smash world records in front of a passionate British home crowd,” he said.

Writing in a blog on www.london2012.com on Tuesday, he said progress made by the construction team on the 80,000-seat stadium over the past year had been amazing.

Time-lapse webcams on the Web site show how the stadium is transforming the London skyline today and how it will become “the heartbeat of the Olympic Park in three years time.”

Visitors to the London 2012 Web site can also watch a video documenting a year’s construction on the Olympic Stadium and go on a virtual tour of the showpiece venue.

Briefs…

…Neil Horan, the defrocked Catholic priest who disrupted the 2004 Olympic men’s marathon in Athens by jumping on to the course and flooring race leader Vanderlei Lima, has re-emerged publicly in Britain. He appeared as a folk dancer on "Britain’s Got Talent," the show that discovered singer Susan Boyle.

Horan’s appearance on the show caused severe embarrassment to the program’s producers. Horan had been arrested in 2003 for running on to the circuit amid Formula 1 racing cars driving at 200 mph during the British Grand Prix. In October 2004, Horan was cleared of allegations of sexual assault on a seven-year-old girl. He was removed from the priesthood the following January.

… Ian McCartney, the Labour government minister who was appointed to take charge of the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, has announced he will retire before the next general election because of ill health.

McCartney, 58, was credited with turning the under-funded Manchester organization into an ultimately successful Games, helping to convince Blair to back London’s Olympic bid. Among McCartney’s closest aides in Manchester was Jackie Brock-Doyle, now media director for LOCOG.

… FIBA, the basketball world body, wants to expand the 2012 Olympic tournaments from 12 to 16 teams. A new format of four groups of four teams would reduce the number of matches played at recent tournaments, which were based on two groups of six teams. The IOC Executive Board will consider the proposal when it meets in Berlin in August.

… Simon Lillistone, 40, who competed at the 1988 and 1992 Olympics for Britain, has been named as cycling competition manager for London 2012.

Written by Steven Downes and Mark BissonFor general comments or questions, click here