WHAT is happening with the London Olympics Nations and Regions programme? It's a good question, and you will be lucky to find any answers on the London 2012 website.
The last news story relating to Scotland was on 20 February, reporting that Olympic Delivery Authority chairman John Armitt had urged Scottish businesses to bid for contracts on the Olympic Park. Since then it all seems to have gone very quiet, with
no repeat, for example, of last year's roadshow, which travelled around the country, whipping up enthusiasm and support for the London Games.
The idea that the 2012 Games are for the whole of the UK was hardly reinforced in Beijing, where Scottish reporters waited patiently in the main press centre for an audience with Sebastian Coe. And waited. And waited.
Eventually, a harassed press officer came and apologetically explained that Lord Coe – who at the time was sitting barely ten yards away, talking to the London-based papers – would have time for only one question. We pushed it to two. "Okay," she relented. But five minutes later she was back. "Really sorry," she said. "He has to dash off. But he will phone you from the car." He didn't, which hardly reinforces the 'all-inclusive' message.
In an interview last week, Roger Mosey, who has been appointed the BBC's 'London 2012 TV director,'
claimed that: "In some cases, the approval levels for the Olympics get higher the further away from London you go."
Really? Of course, the BBC could have some impact on whether or not the Games are embraced by the whole of the UK, and they plan to erect huge high definition screens to broadcast the Games in locations throughout the country.
Charles Allen, the former ITV chief executive, chairs the London 2012 Nations and Regions group, but a check through the minutes of the Olympic Board meeting minutes appear to reveal that he has attended only three of the thirty-odd meetings since the bid was won in 2005 – on 7 February and 4 July last year, and, most recently, on 12 June.
In response to queries about the Nations and Regions group, a London 2012 spokeswoman said: "The first couple of years were about the group making business plans but now they're being put into action, with the Cultural Olympiad, an education programme in 5,000 schools all around the country, and the London 2012 business network. But we can expect a lot more on the ground activity in the nations and regions in the build-up to 2012."
Hoy has his fill of dinners'TIS THE season of awards dinners, which means that clashes are inevitable, but there can be no excuses for a horrendous clash of not two, but three, such dinners on Saturday, 25 October.
In Glasgow there is the Commonwealth Games Scotland Annual Awards Dinner, with a look back at the Beijing Olympics and the Pune Commonwealth Youth Games. In Kilmarnock, meanwhile, there is the Braveheart Fund dinner, which raises money for talented young Scottish cyclists. And in Manchester there is the British Cycling gala dinner, which should be quite an occasion. Or would have been quite an occasion, had the golden boy, Chris Hoy, who is very much in demand by all three dinners, not opted to support the Braveheart Fund, of which he is patron. He may, however, also manage a late appearance at the Glasgow event if time allows.
Faulty start for youth gamesTHE INDIAN city of Pune is the venue of the Commonwealth Youth Games, which got underway yesterday, and which will be watched very closely by the Commonwealth Games Federation, which remains a little apprehensive ahead of the senior Games in Delhi in two years.
The early signs have not exactly been promising, with hitches and glitches adding up to a sense of chaos. The BBC, which has a small team in India, were not impressed at having to wait four days for their accreditations, and, amid power cuts and communication meltdowns, Katie Still's report for John Beattie's Sports Weekly programme on Saturday morning was restricted to a brief phone call.
However, it isn't all bad, according to the Scottish team's spokesman, who reports: "The competition venues are excellent and the volunteers can't do enough to help."
Last night's opening ceremony saw javelin thrower Lisa Glover carrying the Scotland flag.
The full article contains 734 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
