Olympics watch

The biggest ´good news´ story of the London 2012 Olympic Games so far is that the venue for the Olympic sailing events is the first to be completed on time, to budget and is fully operational. Portland Harbour and Weymouth Bay are the venues, their waters having been rated by the Royal Yachting Association as the finest in Northern Europe. More than 400 sailors from 61 countries will compete for medals between 28 July and 11 August 2012, and an as yet unknown number of competitors will take part in the Paralympics from 31 August to 5 September. The location is dominated by the long, arching shingle crescent of Chesil Beach of the Jurassic Coast, which stretches from West Bay in the north-west to Portland in the south. The beach is only 200m at its widest and rises to about 11 m above sea level. On the seaward side it shelves steeply away for 300m until it levels off to a depth of about 18m.