In the dimly-lit venue two nights ago Lord Coe chatted - or perhaps plotted - with his Madrid counterpart Juan Antonio Samaranch jnr. Tonight Alex Gilady, the millionaire Anglophile and IOC member for Israel, is holding court - as well as a large cigar - while revealing little about his voting intentions. 03.50 Bid officials cool off over a beer at the Chijmes courtyard bar and chat with a jet-lagged airline crew on a stopover from London. 00.00 David and Victoria Beckham finish dinner at the rooftop restaurant of the Shangri-la hotel while London bid officials fret over upsetting IOC leaders who had warned against turning the bid vote into a celebrity circus. 01.15 Barbara Cassani, Lord Coe's predecessor and the forgotten woman of the bid, arrives on a late flight and slips into her hotel barely noticed "I'm really nervous.
He told Sky News: "I always always knew this was going to be close, in fairness I pretty much guessed from some time out what I thought the final would be. "These are five very strong cities - Moscow, New York, Madrid, Paris, London - as sporting cities they don't get much bigger." Commenting on his feelings he said: "I feel absolutely ecstatic, we have the opportunity to do what I've always dreamed about in British sport just getting more young people into it - this is our moment really.". Lord Coe, the leader of London's Olympic bid said he was " ecstatic" about winning. Mr Chirac made undiplomatic jokes about mad cow disease and "terrible" British food to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.
The French president, who was due to join Mr Blair at the G8 summit in Scotland later today, only spent a day in Singapore while the British PM was there for three days. Reaction Tony Blair hailed London's victory in the battle to stage the 2012 Olympics today, saying that the city would stage a "fantastic" Games. The Prime Minister said that the effort by the bid team led by Lord Coe had been "just awesome". "We have got a great chance now to develop sport in our country and to have a fantastic Olympic Games and then to leave a legacy for the future," he told reporters in Gleneagles, where he is hosting the G8 summit. The Princess Royal told Sky News: "If you listen to what the senior athletes said it's worth bearing in mind they were all inspired very early by watching things like the Games - the potential is enormous.She added: "They are all good bids, it was going to be close." Sally Gunnell, Olympic gold medalist said it was a "fantastic feeling" to know London would be hosting the Games in 2012.She told Sky News: "You're going to get 15-year-olds at the moment saying I want to be at those Olympics they've got an opportunity now to take part, if not going to see it." David Beckham, who spoke in Singapore yesterday of the prospect of the games taking place on his east London "manor", compared the capital's victory to winning the European Cup. The Princess Royal, a member of the IOC and the London bid team, said: " If you listen to what the senior athletes said it's worth bearing in mind they were all inspired very early by watching things like the Games - the potential is enormous." The result will be a major disappointment for French president Jacques Chirac, whose visit to Singapore to give a last-minute boost to the Paris bid yesterday was somewhat overshadowed by reported jibes he made at the weekend about the UK.