August 21, 2008

Twickenham Stadium will this weekend join hundreds of other towns and cities across the UK to celebrate the handover of the Olympic flag to London.

At 2.30pm this Sunday, the London 2012 flag will be raised above the Home of England Rugby to mark the handover of the Olympic Flag to the Mayor of London Boris Johnson during the closing ceremony of the Beijing Games.

The flag will be raised by John Clark, who is retiring after 26 years as the Twickenham Stadium’s Clerk of the Works.  John has lived next to the stadium since the age of 17, when he arrived with his father Harold, who occupied the same position from 1964 to 1982.

Expectations for 2012 were this week boosted by the most successful sporting weekend in British Olympic history which saw Team GB add eight gold, four silver and five bronze medals to elevate the country to third in Beijing’s overall medals table. 

One of those to claim gold on Super Sunday was St Mary's College graduate Rebecca Romero. Watched on TV by her mother and sister, who live in Twickenham, the former Kingston Rowing Club silver medalist (Athens 04) successfully completed her switch to the bike by striking gold in the women’s individual pursuit.

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