Who would it be?

Who would have the honour of lighting the Olympic cauldron at the end of what turned out to be a memorably emotive and evocative London 2012 Opening Ceremony to get the Greatest Sporting Show on Earth under way and pay homage to the ancient games in Olympia?

Of all the secrets surrounding details of the breathtaking three-hour extravaganza celebrating British life throughout the centuries, the most closely guarded was the identity of the person who would forever go down in history for officially launching the 30th Olympiad – even though, technically, it had already started with football 48 hours earlier.

Even as the minutes ticked away at the Olympic Stadium in the build-up to the climax of the night after a powerful pageant of  jaw-dropping colour and creativity watched by an estimated one billion people worldwide, Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to go under four minutes for the mile – watched by a mere 3,000 spectators – became even more an odds-on favourite to light the Flame.

Sir Roger, now 83, may not have stopped the clock at 3min 59.4sec during the Olympics themselves but his iconic feat on May 6, 1954, remains one of the most epoch-making moments in British sporting history.

Some of the 80,000 ecstatic fans packed into the state-of-the-art Olympic Stadium on a humid night in Stratford were even reported to be taking bets among themselves.

Sir Steve Redgrave carried the Olympic Torch into the Olympic Stadium

Still very much in the running were Sir Steve Redgrave, gold medal rower in an unprecedented five consecutive Olympics, and two-times Olympic champion Daley Thompson, arguably the greatest decathlete of all time.

The Queen, the world's most famous and instantly recognisable Royal, who had already been welcomed alongside members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), was another contender after her odds were slashed to 5-1 by one bookmaker.

But Twitter postings just before the big moment suggested that 98 per cent of money taken on the morning of the Opening Ceremony had been placed on Bannister.

Bookmakers William Hill seemed to agree Sir Roger would be the man.

"We've run this market for seven years, ever since London got the Games, and throughout it Sir Steve Redgrave was always the favourite," a William Hill spokesman was quoted as saying a few hours earlier.

"But from about 7pm on Wednesday until Thursday afternoon we got a sustained run of bets on Bannister."

So paranoid were organisers for the name of the final Torchbearer not to be disclosed that volunteers who took part in rehearsals yesterday were ordered not to take pictures and there were even reports that leaked footage had been pulled from the internet.

Could it possibly be David Beckham? 

The decision to leave the former England football captain out of the Team GB squad left organisers with the dilemma of how to reward his decisive contribution in winning London the Games.

Daley Thompson was one of seven Olympians to nominate a teenager to light the Olympic cauldron

Or would Games boss Sebastian Coe and his team at London 2012 surprise us all and go for someone symbolic in a slightly different way?

Maybe a child, maybe an unknown hero who had made his or her own special contribution to British sporting life.

All we had been promised officially by Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt was that the decision had been unanimous and that it would be a "wow" moment.

And so it proved – but not in the way everyone had predicted.

After the trademark flagwaving athletes' parade – with the biggest cheer reserved, of course, for Great Britain to the sounds of David Bowie's Heroes – and the Queen officially declaring the Games open, the secret was finally revealed just after midnight and before a dazzling firework display.

And how it upset the odds.

Step forward no fewer than seven famous Olympians, accompanied by seven nominated teenagers, in an inspired and collective display of generation-spanning inclusivity.

The Olympians were Redgrave – who carried the Torch into the stadium through a 500-strong guard of honour at the end of its 12,800-mile journey – Thompson, long jumper Lynn Davies, pentathlete Dame Mary Peters, sailor Shirley Robertson, swimmer Duncan Goodhew and track and field's Dame Kelly Holmes.

A veritable galaxy of Olympic heroes.

But the greatest thrill must surely have been felt by the seven cauldron-lighting teenagers, young sporting champions or ambassadors in their own right, the centre of world attention on them and representing the Olympic hopes and dreams of the future.

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