Star comment: Lord Coe is a runner with form
The Paralympic Games of 2012 have been the best ever. The Olympics have been a sporting spectacle to rank with the very best.
Britain has emerged triumphant as a true sporting nation which has admired and applauded the best efforts of all those taking part, and which has supported the events with huge enthusiasm.
In the run-up to the games there were those who were predicting that the Olympics would be an expensive fiasco. You could sense these sneering cynics half hoping that their most doom-laden predictions would be vindicated.
But those empty seats at some venues at the start of the Olympics and the G4S security hiccups are now distant memories. Once the sporting action began, the worries and doubts were washed away by the Olympic tidal wave.
Something very rare and special has happened. Almost everybody associated with the Olympics and Paralympics has emerged with credit and with enhanced reputations.
Among all the heroes and heroines, one man has stood out. Lord Coe stuck his neck out. He took the risks and had the vision and drive to carry this momentous project through from the early days when even the official logos attracted jeers.
He was the man of the match, and made for this moment, thanks to his own Olympian background and his career as a Tory MP, which gave him the nous to handle himself adroitly among those who hold the levers of power and – just as importantly – the purse strings.
David Cameron is failing to convince many of his voters, and Boris Johnson is even being touted as a stalking horse leadership candidate.
If he is looking to strengthen his team and bring in somebody with a proven track record, who handles himself well under pressure, and who seemingly has the golden touch, then the name of Lord Coe will surely come into the running.