LONDON 2012 HERE WE COME!

On Sunday Bedfordshire welcomed home Victoria Pendleton from Stotfold, our World Cycling Champion who won an Olympic Gold Medal in Beijing in the Women's Cycling Sprint.

Victori'as success helped Bedfordshire County Council to be chosen to receive one of only 500 Olympic Handover Flags, delivered to selected councils, embassies and HM Forces worldwide. This flag symbolises the formal handover to London which will host the 2012 Olympic Games and will be flown at County Hall for the next 5 weeks.

Other Olympic Gold Medal Winners have been welcomed home, incoluding Rebecca Atherton, 19, from Mansfield who won 2 Gold Medals for swimming. Mansfield people were ecstatic at her success and are renaming both the local swimming pool and a pub in her honour. Stotfold has renamed a road Pendleton Way but wants to commemorate Victoria's Olympic success - does anyone have any bright ideas?

During the wet and gloomy days of August with the credit crunch and the war between Georgia and Russia, these young British Olympians cheered us all up by winning 47 medals, including 19 gold and restored British confidence in our sporting prowess.

DR. TIM WINS BRITAIN'S 18TH OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL IN BEIJING

Today Dr.Tim Brabants, 31, won Britain's 18th Olympic Gold Medal and lst ever Gold Medal for Canoeing in the Men's 1000m. Canoe/Kayak Single(K1)and led throughout the race. Tim won a bronze medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He has trained for 15 years and put his medical career on hold in 2006 to prepare for the Beijing Olympics so his Gold Medal is richly deserved.

Heather Fell won a Silver Medal in the Women's Modern Pentathlon, missing gold by just 9 seconds. James Degale won his Middleweight Boxing Semi Final and is now guaranteed a gold or silver medal. Sadly Tony Jeffries and David Price lost their boxing semi-finals and had to settle for Bronze Medals.

Today's unluckiest British contestant was Shanaze Reade, who was in silver medal position in the Women's BMX Race but made a last attempt to beat her French opponent and crashed, ending up with no medal. The Gold Medal hunger among the Team GB squad is such that only Gold will do - hence Phillips Idowu's long face after winning a Silver Medal yesterday and the tears from the Quadruple Sculls Women when they won a Silver Medal - but there is another chance for them all at London 2012.....

Britain is still in 3rd place with 44 medals, just ahead of Russia