Former Olympic champion and long-standing triple jump world record-holder Jonathan Edwards is predicting that Team GB’s sailors, a number of whom are based locally, will be celebrating Games glory on the south coast this summer. The sporting legend, whose father was a vicar in Bearwood, also thinks the Olympics will leave a positive legacy for the people of Dorset: “I have been down to Weymouth and Portland quite a few times.

I unveiled a plaque in what is going to be the Olympic village. It looks great.

They have developed the marina and the work that the ODA (Olympic Delivery Authority) has done at the main sailing area looks fabulous.

A huge amount of hard work is going on to make that as accessible as possible at Games-time for local residents, as well as getting the sailing to go off as well as possible.

There has been a huge amount of investment. You have got the new road, so in terms of quality of life there afterwards and accessibility, I think it will be much better.

You have also got one of the sports which I think is going to produce masses of gold medals. There will be a huge amount of celebration down there and there will be a lot of focus on Weymouth.

We are good at sailing anyway and the sailors have been down there since they found out the Games were going there.

They will know the waters better than anybody else, so they should have an advantage. It is one of the events where you really do get a home Games advantage.”