Tears Of Joy For London

[Samurai]

London's Olympic bid team wept with delight after they beat the odds to host the 2012 Olympic Games.

In Singapore, England captain David Beckham and Olympic legend Sir Steve Redgrave embraced after the announcement was made.

And the thousands that had gathered in Trafalgar Square erupted into cheers and screams of delight.

Tony Blair, speaking at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, said: "It's not often in this job that you punch the air, dance a little jig and embrace the person next to you."

Bid leader Sebastian Coe, said: "I feel absolutely ecstatic. We have the opportunity to do what I have always dreamt about for British sport."

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told of her shock at the decision: "We came from nowhere to win the Olympic Games."

And London Mayor Ken Livingstone has pledged to "start the work tomorrow".

Over the channel in Paris, the French, who for so long had been favourite to win the games, were left crestfallen.

In the final stage of voting, the two cities went head-to-head after Moscow, New York and Madrid dropped out. London won by 54 votes to 50.

All the bidding cities completed presentations to the International Olympic Committee in Singapore before the voting began.

Big-hitters such as Tony Blair, France's President Jacques Chirac and US Senator Hillary Clinton were all on hand to promote their bids.

In Madrid, the party mood fizzled out in seconds, when they lost out in the third round.

And in Moscow, a crowd of about 100,000 people had gathered in Red Square only to be disappointed as they were the first city to be eliminated.

Source(s): Sky News | Yahoo.com

Announcement Video Clip: Video Clip 1 - Singapore

[Zeus_Hunt]

Paris was the front runner and it lost it....

Front runners dont win much huh !