At 7.25pm on 18 May the flame arrived on a chartered British Airways A319 aircraft, specially named The Firefly.

The torch relay will get underway on the morning of the 19th after the Royal Navy Search and Rescue Squadron delivers the Flame to Land’s End. The helicopter that will carry the flame is scheduled to arrive at 7:00am. Shortly after the first Torchbearer will set off on the estimated 8,000 miles around the United Kingdom.

Three-times Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie CBE will have the honour of being the very first Torchbearer to carry the Olympic Flame.

Below you can watch the Olympic Flame handover ceremony.

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Samaranch was the long time president of the International Olympic Committee and stood down from the position in 2001 after 21 years in the position. He was the longest-serving IOC president.

Current IOC President Jacques Rogge took over after Samaranch stepped down.

“I cannot find the words to express the distress of the Olympic family,” Rogge said in a statement after his death.

We have lost a great man, a mentor and a friend who dedicated his long and fulfilled life to Olympism

–IOC president Jaques Rogge “I am personally deeply saddened by the death of the man who built up the Olympic Games of the modern era, a man who inspired me, and whose knowledge of sport was truly exceptional.

“Thanks to his extraordinary vision and talent, Samaranch was the architect of a strong and unified Olympic movement. I can only pay tribute to his tremendous achievements and legacy, and praise his genuine devotion to the Olympic movement and its values.

“We have lost a great man, a mentor and a friend who dedicated his long and fulfilled life to Olympism.”

Samaranch took the Olympics to a new level and made it a commercial success. For me the most memorable moment relating to Samaranch was when he announced that Sydney had won the right to host the 2000 Olympics.

Kumaritashvili, 21, was to have represented Georgia at the Winter Games. He crashed on the final corner of the high speed track and went out of the track and hit a metal post. I saw a replay on tv however they spared the viewers the moment of impact.

Unfortunately this is the third time that a competitor has been killed during a Winter Olympic event.

It was at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck when British luge slider Kazimierz Kay-Skrzypeski and Australian alpine skier Ross Milne were also killed in training accidents. Another death took place at the Albertville Games in 1992 Swiss speed skier Nicholas Bochatay however his event was only a demonstration event.

It is a sad day for the Olympics and especially the family of Nodar Kumaritashvili.

To get the final approval the sports needed a majority vote from the IOC members. Both had no trouble with this. Rugby was voted for in a big way by the IOC members who voted 81-8 in its favour. Golf got in by a margin of 63-27.

The President of the Olympic Movement Jacques Rogge as a former rugby international would have been pleased to see the seven’s version of the game get added to the games.

Rogge also was re-elected as President by a margin of 88-1. I wonder who voted against him. It was basically a rubber stamp as he was not challenged for the position.

Now we have nothing but to look forward to the winter games in 2010 and then the 2012 games in London.

That is how it turned out following the votes in Copenhagen. What came as a surprise was that Chicago were dumped in the first round. Even Barak Obama making a plea for his city to win the games was not enough. Chicago received just 18 votes in round one, Tokyo 22, Rio 26 and Madrid 28.

Australia’s high ranking IOC member Kevin Gosper suspects that the Asian delegates got together to eliminate Chicago.

In round two voting Tokyo were next to go. This was a city with the least hometown support and considering the games were in Asia just last year that counted against them. The votes were Madrid 46, Rio 29 and Tokyo 20.

Now it came down to a race between Madrid and Rio. Even though there is not a rule against awarding the same continent consecutive games in practice that is how it works. With that being said you had to think Rio would come out on top, even though Madrid had a solid round two vote.

The final round saw Rio win easily with 66 votes to Madrid’s 32.

Not content to just win gold the big Jamaican has smashed his own world record for the event. Last year at the Beijing Olympics he did not run hard to the line in the 100m race, he addressed this in the 200m race and in the process took Michael Johnson’s long standing 200 meter world record which stood at 19.32 since the 1996 Olympics.

Back in August 2008 Bolt set the mark at 19.30. Bolts new track and field world record for the 200 meters now stands at 19.19.

He came out of the blocks fast and established a huge lead by mid-race. He powered home to see the outstanding new record. Alonso Edward of Panama was second, a massive 0.62 seconds behind running 19.81, Wallace Spearmon of the United States ran 19.85 for bronze and countryman Shawn Crawford finished fourth in 19.89. The first five runners were under 20 seconds.

Tyson Gay did not contest the race due to a groin injury. Without Bolt in the race it was a close contest. The winning margin is the biggest in world championship history.

American Wallace Spearmon who won bronze admitted afterwards that he had gone into the race hoping at best for silver. That is what Usain does to you. “I saw Bolt for maybe three seconds,” Spearmon said. “This guy is really really fast, he’s amazing.”

Bolt can perhaps thank France’s David Alerte for his fast time after the Frenchman false started. In the first start Bolt had a reaction time of 0.345. Lucky for him in the second start Bolt got an awesome start with a 0.133 reaction time which was the fastest in the field. With a great start there was no stopping him.

The world now waits to see just how much lower Bolt can take the 100m and 200m world records.

If you look back over time since the IAAF required fully automatic timing to the hundredth of a second in 1977 the record was only lowered on four occasions before Berlin. Pietro Mennea set it at 19.72 in 1979. Michael Johnson twice broke it in 1996 with 19.66 in June and then at the Olympics he set 19.32. Bolt then shaved it to 19.30 in Beijing when running into a -0.9 wind. He then smashed it in Berlin.

Full results for the men’s 200 meter world championship final are below.

First we had the amazing run by Usain Bolt, along with his countryman Asafa Powell picking up third. Now we have the women going one-two in the 100m final.

In a contrast to the size and power of Bolt, we saw the pocket rocket Shelly-Ann Fraser collecting gold.

She was fast out of the blocks and like Bolt put herself clear of the field. Unlike in the men’s race she was chased down. In the end she won the race by the slimmest of margins as her fellow Jamaican Kerron Stewart closed in on the Olympic champion.

In the end it was Fraser who took gold with a time of 10.73 seconds just ahead of Stewart who ran 10.75. USA’s Carmelita Jeter stopped a Jamaican 1-2-3 by taking the bronze in 10.90. Veronica Campbell-Brown was fourth in 10.95.

Imagine if Fraser has the long legs of Usain Bolt, how fast could she run?

This was another great race and lived up to the drama of a world championships. It is just really amazing how a country the size of Jamaica can produce so many great sprinters.

Tonight in Berlin at the world athletics championships it was a night of contrasts, however there was still an impressive athletic performance. 1.60 metre distance running sensation Kenenisa Bekele won his fourth consecutive 10000m title at a world championships.

The 27-year-old Olympic champion ran 26min 46.31 sec to win gold. Along the way he matched Haile Gebrselassie for the most world championship titles won.

It takes size, speed and power to win the 100m, it takes guts to win the 10000m.

Last year he ran 9.69. I was privileged to witness that great run as I enjoyed the awesome atmosphere from within the bird’s nest. This time I had to settle for watching on tv. It was once again an amazing performance with Bolt not only winning but breaking the world record. He was clear of second place Tyson Gay as he crossed the line to stop the clock at an incredible 9.58 seconds. This is one of the great track and field world records.

Gay was about 2 metres back when he crossed in 9.71 seconds and former world record holder Asafa Powell crossed in 9.84 seconds to claim bronze. Gay was defending champion and was back in a major final after going out in the semi’s in Beijing.

Bolt came out of the blocks in smart fashion and by mid-race had established a lead that only increased as he effortlessy completed the 100m dash.

Last year in Beijing he followed up the 100m win with gold in the 200m. Can he repeat that performance in 2009?

Now with such an amazing 100m track and field world record what can Bolt do next? Can he run even faster?