The Government has finally given up on the idea that hosting an elite athletics event will stimulate sports participation. In September, the target of getting a million people playing some kind of sport three times a week looked certain to be missed. Of course, if the Government had listened they would have known this was never going to happen. So it looks like changing the clocks is the only policy left in the cupboard.

Lots in the blogosphere on Coe&Co having chosen to re-route the marathon away from East London.

This comment on Diamond Geezer is really quite touching:

It seems sports administrators have finally decided the Olympics and other high profile elite sports events will not inspire the nation to participate in sport. They now argue the solution is as simple as winding up the clock or at least moving the time on an hour. If we could only have an extra hour of daylight in the evening sporting success would follow. Why, we might win the World Cup and have a Wimbledon winner at last! Well, at least we could reduce the chances of hearing 'Bad light stops play' which, according to Mike Gatting, 'is one of the most frustrating sentences you can hear in a cricket context'.

Amid the welter of failing Olympic Legacies come the latest figures on sport participation which show it will take 25 years for the government to reach its reduced Olympic Legacy target of getting another million people involved in sport three times a week. 14 sports actually showed a statistically significant decrease in the numbers particpating once a week. And that doesn't take into account the effect of the coming budget cuts.

Report by the London Assembly Economic Development, Culture, Sport and Tourism Committee, Legacy United? The Legacy of London's Olympic Venues.

Focuses on the Legacy uses of the Main Stadium and th

It seems the iconic 2012 Olympic stadium is going to be out-iconed by the Mall and Buckingham Palace! LOCOG is looking at ending the London 2012 marathon in the Mall. A bit embarrassing really. Maybe no-one bothered to do a recce of East London's mean streets to see how exactly they would bring the athletes back to the stadium along a dazzling avenue. Locations like Bow roundabout and flyover would be prominent features to be broadcast around the world. I guess Bow Road can't quite match Piccadilly, the Strand or the Embankment.

The demand for new staff at the ODA to fuel the insatiable requirements for distortion, obfuscation and misrepresention of information on an Olympian scale shows no sign of abating, despite the promises of public sector cuts. Some things are just too important.

Correction and apology, the Lido is not being taken over by the American Olympic team but by the Paralympic team - for a few hours a day, details not yet available - best to check with the Lido for times.