On Friday it was 1,400 days to go to the first Opening Ceremony in London 2012. So what better way to mark the event than to have a mini-handover in the London sunshine?

I popped to the beautifully re-landscaped Potter's Field Park to catch Mayor of London Boris Johnson, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and Seb Coe stride onto a make-shift stage for a fairly monumental flag-raising. The Union Jack, the Antwerp Olympic Flag and the Paralympic Flag were brought ceremoniously to the stage by cadets to music from the London 2012 segment in the Beijing Closing Ceremony. The five-ringed Olympic Flag was raised by a slightly giggly Christine Ohuruogu (400m champ from Beijing) who at first struggled a bit with the hoisting mechanism - while Helene Raynsford (women's arm-only single scull Paralympic champ) and multiple Paralympic gold medalist swimmer Chris Holmes did the honours with the Paralympic Flag.


All three will now flutter above the capital for the next 1,400 days, marking the start of the next phase of London's Olympic and Paralympic journey. Pop down to City Hall (London Bridge Tube) to see the flags on the south bank of the Thames in-between the shadows of historic Tower Bridge and the modern architecture of City Hall.

All quite emotional, pride-invoking stuff. A cheering crowd of schoolchildren waved their own (somewhat smaller) Union Jacks to celebrate, while a scrum of press photographers took pictures, and film crews recorded their footage and interviews. A bemused crowd of office-workers might have only been there to snaffle their lunch in the sun, but they clearly got a bit more than the Cheese Ploughman's they had bargained for.


The public event over, the sporting and political dignitaries headed for the room on top of City Hall for champagne to continue the celebration. I can confirm that Christine's giggleyness continued in the lift, and despite being in a nippy suit rather than a Team GB tracksuit, she was mobbed by most of the people there. Boris made a speech that heralded the work that needs to take place over the next few years, but in his oratorical style predicted a 'Juddering Crescendo of Optimism' for the Games. Time will tell – 1,400 days' worth of it, in fact.