Olympic flag raised in St Albans
AN OLYMPIC handover flag was raised in St Albans at the weekend as the Beijing Games drew to a close and the honour was passed on to the UK. The city was one of hundreds of locations across the country marking the moment on Sunday when London became the o
AN OLYMPIC handover flag was raised in St Albans at the weekend as the Beijing Games drew to a close and the honour was passed on to the UK.
The city was one of hundreds of locations across the country marking the moment on Sunday when London became the official host city for the 2012 Olympic Games.
When the Mayor of Beijing handed the Olympic flag over to the Mayor of London there were 500 of the 2012 Olympic flags raised simultaneously in towns and cities throughout the UK.
The district council and Leisure Connection held a celebratory event in Verulamium Park between 2pm and 5pm and the Olympic flag was raised at the Abbey at 2.30pm following a procession led by the Mayor of St Albans and local children.
After the flag was raised a number of local bands played live music in the park throughout the afternoon while sport and physical activity sessions were on offer to get children and young people active. Verulamium Museum was also running workshops for children.
The handover ceremony was the first of its kind in the history of the Olympic and Paralympic Games and Chairman of the London 2012 Organising Committee, Sebastian Coe, said it was a "very important and exciting moment."
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Mayor of St Albans, Cllr Bert Pawle said: "I ask you all to support the London Organising Committee and all of our athletes in what I believe will be a fantastic Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in London in 2012.
"St Albans will, I am sure, seize the opportunity with both hands to become involved in making these London Games something special and memorable."
Deputy Mayor, Cllr Maxine Crawley, was joined by her consort Warwick and children Megan and James for a similar ceremony at the Herts Sports Village in Hatfield.
She said: "It was a really inspirational ceremony with the England Netball Squad, who are hoping to be recognised as an Olympic sport one day, some of the Paralympic hopefuls for 2012 and young athletes from other sports, raising the flag.
