On 6 July at 12.46pm GMT, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Jacques Rogge, thanked the five remaining bid cities for showing “great competitive spirit in this long race” before announcing that London would host the 2012 Olympic Games.

London secured the majority of IOC votes in the fourth and final round of voting in Singapore, beating the favourite Paris, along with Madrid, New York and Moscow.

The outside candidate, Moscow, was the first to fall after the first round of voting. New York was the second city to be dismissed, followed by Madrid – which was voted out in the third round – leaving Paris and London to go head to head.

Upon winning, London 2012 chair, Lord Coe, said: “This is just the most fantastic opportunity to do everything we ever dreamed of in British sport.”

Huge crowds gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square and all over the UK people greeted the announcement with jubilation.

Ralph Riley, chief executive of the Institute of Sport and Recreation Management (ISRM), said: "Winning the bid creates an opportunity for the country to unite and for each of us to play a role and have an active participation in the sporting celebration of the century. It will mean providing more opportunities for people to take part in sport, restoring some of the faded sporting infrastructure of the UK."

"As a country we will have to meet Olympic standards to provide more first class facilities where people can learn about sporting excellence, as well as taking the first fundamental steps towards a lifetime in sport.

"Somewhere in this country is someone who has not yet taken up a sport who will win a medal in 2012. Building up the infrastructure for sport in the UK will require investment but that investment will pay for itself a thousand times over in the contribution it makes to improving people's lives."

Brigid Simmonds, chief executive of Business In Sport and Leisure (BISL) claimed that London’s bid success represented a “red-letter day for sport and leisure in the UK”.

Recent BISL research revealed that a typical UK sporting event raises approximately £500,000 a day, while, Australia, which hosted the Olympics in Sydney in 2000, benefitted from an extra 1.6 million visitors and £2.5bn between 1997 and 2001.

Meanwhile, Paul Dales of independent economics consultancy Capital Economics has claimed that the overall effect of hosting the Games could boost the British economy by around £9bn. However, he said that this must be kept in perspective given that this figure represents just under 1 per cent of the UK’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Following the announcement in Singapore, the UK government has said that culture minister Tessa Jowell will now become the new Olympic Minister. Details: www.london2012.org