Speaking at a ground-breaking ceremony in the Olympic Park for the ArcelorMittal Orbit, Johnson commented: "We are bidding to hold the World Hockey Championships in London in 2014, we have already secured the 2015 Rugby World Cup, and we are bidding for the 2018 football World Cup.“

We think it’s sensible to stagger it and to go for the 2017 World Athletics Championships.

He shrugged off the suggestion that Britain’s third failure to follow through on a bid for this event in the last decade had created a sense of embarrassment in international athletics circles. "London is a centre for sport but there is a limit to the number of things you can bid for," he said.

"I think we have a lot to be going on with, and we can bid for the athletics in 2017."

Before Johnson got to work on shovelling soil - in company with benefactor Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive and chairman of ArcelorMittal, architect Anish Kapoor and Andrew Altman, chief executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company - he recalled the brief conversation in which he had suggested the notion of financing a landmark for London to Mittal when they bumped into each other in a cloakroom in Davos during the 2009 G8 Summit.

"Who would have believed that our brief conversation in that cloakroom at Davos would have led to the creation of the biggest, most eccentric art project ever conceived of in this country?" Johnson asked as he stood in a yellow dayglo top and orange hard hat.

He described the 114 metres-high sculptural installation that will stand between the main stadium and the aquatics centre as "confirmation that London is the cultural capital of the world and a symbol of confidence for a city coming out of recession," adding: "There’s no way back now, folks.



"We have got to get this thing done by the Olympics.

"I'm sure that we will look forward to meeting here again - no later than July 27th, 2012."

Recalling the casual conversation he and Johnson had had in Davos, Mittal admitted: "When we first discussed the project it seemed like a very complex process.

"There were hundreds and hundreds of questions to be answered, and when I first sat down with Boris I thought this project would never see the light of day.

"So I am very pleased we are witnessing this ceremony today.

"It shows the versatility of steel, how it can give itself to different forms, and how it can be an icon for London."

Kapoor added: "It seems I was the only one who never had any doubts about this project.

"From the moment when we won the competition to construct the tower, I somehow knew we would get there. We have just got to build it now.

"Altman described the future edifice as "the most spectacular sculpture and visitor attraction in London.

"Where you are all standing right now is going to become one of the significant public spaces of this city."

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, had cited the 2012 Olympic Village as being an area that would help transform East London into a high-tech hub to rival California’s Silicon Valley.

"Already the area around Old Street and Shoreditch has more than one hundred technology companies, attracted to the cheaper rents, the great transport links and the cafes and galleries,"he wrote in the Evening Standard.

"Add to that the Olympic Park.

"Just a few Tube stops away, there’s the potential for nearly one million square feet of flexible office and research space which our technology companies can expand into...

"East London has all the ingredients to become one of the world’s leading technology centres."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
October 2010: London bid for 2015 World Athletics Championships withdraw