All set for 2012 London Olympics July 27 – August 12

The sun has risen in London opening the day for inauguration of the 2012 London Olympics for which millions of sport fans all over the globe was awaiting.  Queen Elisabeth the 2nd of Britain will inaugurate the ceremony in the presence of about 80,000 people in the Olympic Stadium. BBC said that the three-hour spectacle in the Olympic Stadium is expected to be viewed by a global TV audience of one billion.

The final day of the torch relay will see the Olympic flame taken along the Thames on The royal rowbarge Gloriana, currently docked at the St Katharine Dock yard - and then used to light the cauldron that will shine during 16 days of sport. Britain has mounted its biggest peacetime security operation for the games.

Europe's largest bell will ring inside the stadium at 21:00 BST at the start of the £27m extravaganza, featuring a cast of 10,000 volunteers and said to be a quirky take on British life. Some 15,000 square meters of staging and 12,956 props will be used, and the event will boast a million-watt PA system using more than 500 speakers.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip will host a Buckingham Palace reception for Heads of State and Government and an opening ceremony celebration concert featuring Snow Patrol, Stereophonics, Duran Duran and Paolo Nutini will be held in Hyde Park.

Reports said that the Olympic fever is at its best as London becomes the first ever city to host three Olympic Games in the 116-year-old history of modern Olympics. London first hosted the Olympics in 1908, the second in 1948 and the third has returned to it after 64 years.

It was in 1948 London Olympics that Duncan White won a medal for hurdles.

Shuttler Niluka Karunaratne, the overall captain of the Sri Lanka contingent, is expected to carry the lion flag at the opening ceremony parade. However, this opportunity may go to another senior competitor in the contingent if that overlaps with Karunaratne's training schedules for his men's singles first round scheduled for this weekend. The rest of the Sri Lanka competitors have begun their training here at Olympic training venues and shooter Mangala Samarakoon and shuttler Thilini |Jayasinghe are expected to be seen in action this weekend.

There will be over 20 live sites - official big screen centres with associated activities - throughout the UK. The Olympic Stadium is in the Stratford area of London, and it will have a capacity for 80,000 during the Games. The International Broadcast Centre, based in the Olympic Park, will be a 24-hour media hub for around 20,000 broadcasters, photographers and journalists, who will bring the Games to an estimated four billion people worldwide. (niz)