Sports Article: London Olympics 2012

Olympics is not a sprint : Andrew Culf

With 2,290 days to go until the London 2012 Olympics, the organisers yesterday warned that the project would be a marathon rather than a sprint. The first nine months of preparations came under scrutiny with the visit of the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission.

The 16-member commission, led by the chairman, Denis Oswald, toured sites in east London. From a tower block, they got a bird's-eye view of the Olympic Park, and they visited the O2 Centre, formerly the Millennium Dome, which will be home to gymnastics and basketball.

The team also saw the new Channel tunnel rail link at Stratford International, and last night dined at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The commission will deliver a verdict on its visit today, but London 2012 officials said the talks had gone well and it appeared the IOC was impressed by the speed with which the project had got off the starting blocks.

Lord Coe, chairman of the organising committee, dismissed a report in the French newspaper Le Monde that six members of the IOC had taken bribes when London was awarded the games ahead of the favourite, Paris, in Singapore last July. "I would be more concerned about the report if it had not been rubbished by the bid team in Paris themselves." A No 10 spokesman insisted "there was a lot of bloody hard work by people to win the bid", and that Tony Blair had "carved out time in his diary" to lobby delegates in Singapore.

Jack Lemley, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, warned: "This project is a marathon, not a sprint, and it will take a gold medal performance to deliver what we set out to deliver. We are making a start on that and that is in no small part down to what was done in the planning phase." Mr Lemley said the project would face difficulties. "We are putting in programmes and resources to work around those negative surprises ... I believe we can achieve this within the time."

He forecast there would be minor changes to plans for the Olympic Park: "I think there will be some venues moved around on the plot of land." Although the organisers claim not to be concerned by the cost and delay problems which have blighted the new Wembley stadium, Lord Coe said the lessons had been learned. Wembley had "not been dealt the best deck of cards" because the project had initially lacked the unanimity of purpose that surrounds the Olympics.

Lord Coe caused surprise when, in an apparent U-turn, he said that the Olympic Stadium could become the home of a Premiership football team after reports of interest from West Ham United. Previously, officials have insisted the 80,000-seater stadium would be used as an athletics venue with a scaled-down 25,000 capacity. Lord Coe said "nothing has been ruled out", hinting it could double as a football stadium with a running track.

Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, said the government was determined to keep the £2.375bn costs under control. "We are carrying out a review of all the costs, not as a one-off, but as a continuing discipline. Delays cost money."

Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, believed remaining wrangles with small businesses facing eviction from the Olympic site would be resolved by the end of the year. A public inquiry begins next month, but by then London 2012 will control around 80% of the land.There are about 400 complaints from 100 objectors.