Countdown is on for 2012

BEIJING // So long, Bird's Nest, Water Cube and Tiananmen Square. Hello, Wembley, Wimbledon and Trafalgar Square. As the Beijing Olympics draw toward a close this weekend, the countdown is set for the 2012 Games in London. Inevitably, comparisons are made between the outgoing and next host city: can London live up to China's extravagant opening ceremony, eye-catching venues and near flawless organisation?

"We don't sit here cowed by anything we've seen," said Sebastian Coe, the former two-time Olympic middle-distance champion who heads the London 2012 organising committee. Coe, who led London's winning bid for the Games, remains as passionate and determined to deliver a lasting experience as he was in pursuing titles and world records on the track. While London may not be able to compete with the sheer size, scale and political impact of China's Games, the British capital will do things its own way.

"I don't think in terms of living up to Beijing or making direct comparisons," Coe said. "Eighty per cent of the organisation is uniform to all Olympics. "The other 20 per cent is adapted to the environment you're working in. "These Games are being done on a grander scale than anything the Olympic movement has ever witnessed. I don't sit here saying London has to do it that way." The handover from Beijing to London will officially take place during Sunday's closing ceremony, with the Olympic flag turned over to the London Mayor Boris Johnson during an eight-minute segment of dance and music that is expected to feature the English football icon David Beckham arriving in a red double decker bus and performances by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and the pop singer Leona Lewis. "This is the biggest global moment we've had thus far and the biggest global moment we'll have until our own opening ceremony," Coe said.

"You'll get a short and small glimpse of our DNA." The occasion will also be celebrated in London with a party and concert on the Mall, in front of Buckingham Palace, and an appearance by the American swimmer Michael Phelps, who won a record eight gold medals in Beijing and plans to be back for more in 2012. The success of any Olympics is invariably linked to the success of the host country's athletes, and Britain has been reaping an unexpected medal haul in Beijing that can only be a huge lift-off for London 2012.

Britain are a surprising third behind China and United States in the medal table. It's a far cry from the 1996 Atlanta Games, when Britain finished 36th with a single gold. Suddenly, Britain's target of finishing fourth in golds in 2012 does not look so far fetched. * AP