HAS the world gone crazy? London has a chance of hosting the Olympic Games and some people wonder if it is a good idea.

It's like being offered champagne and asking which year, or beating Germany 5-1 in Munich and moaning about the German goal.

In all these cases you just accept it and don't ask questions.

The London Olympics in 2012 would be the greatest sporting event, if not the greatest spectactle of any kind, ever staged in this country.

The money provided by the International Olympic Committee would mean it would not cost us financially and the sporting legacy it would leave this country would be immense.

The Commonwealth Games was the best thing to happen to Manchester since the Industrial Revolution. It made the city feel good about itself and put Manchester on the world map and the same would be the case with an Olympic Games in London only ten times more so.

They said Sydney couldn't cope in 2000 and look what an amazing job they made of it. They are saying the same about Athens in two years time but they are well on course to produce another fantastic Games, just like Beijing will four years later.

The government will decide in January whether to go for it and they must.

The Athens Games will be all the richer for Jonathan Edwards' announcement this week that he aims to extend his career to defend his triple jump gold at his fifth Olympics.

Bowing out at the spiritual home of the Olympic Games would be an appropriate end to one of Great Britain's most consistent, successful and enduring sporting heroes.