Olympic handover and raising the flag

With the flag being passed from Beijing to London at the closing ceremony, this was today replicated with the raising of a London 2012 flag at the Merton Civic Centre in Morden. The event started at Abbey Mills were it took place alongside the Kidsfest( a free festival aimed at children) which I opened prior to attending the flag handover ceremony at the Civic Centre. The London 2012 Olympic flag travelled 2012 metres to Morden, carried by a variety of community groups including Making Colliers Wood Happy, Deen City Farm and the winner of the London youth games girls cricket team. At the Civic Centre the flag was handed to me and I raised it up the flagpole. The event will be one of a variety of events taking place over the next few weeks, and will include the launch of the Cultural Olympiad in Wimbledon Park at the end of September, along with events to mark the closing of Paralympics in September.

It was a great honour to raise the flag, as hosting the Olympics is a once in a lifetime opportunity for this great city. With us winning 19 golds at the Olympics we should be very proud of all our Olympians who achieved so much in Beijing and exceeded all expectations. I also hope, as well, that it will inspire children to get involved in sport, we've achieved so much the past two weeks and along with hosting the games should be a huge motivational factor in taking up sport. The past two weeks have been fantastic, and London 2012 will be even better and already I'm excited even though it's still 1433 days to the opening ceremony.