WITH London striking gold last week after being chosen to host the 2012 Olympic Games, a local man recalls a previous occasion when Great Britain came very close to crossing the winning line in a bid to host the games. Gwynne Griffiths, who lives in Penally, was part of the team that saw the city of Birmingham launch a bid to host the 1992 games. Working for the city's council at the time, Gwynne was one of the Olympic bid officers working alongside Birmingham Olympic Council president, Rt. Hon. Denis Howell. Birmingham was narrowly pipped at the conference in Geneva to elect who hosted the games, with Barcelona being chosen instead. Gwynne, though, who still has in his possession one of the comprehensive dossiers compiled to document the city's arrangements and strategy on hosting the games, believes that London has taken a similar approach to Birmingham its their bid. "London's strategy appears to have taken the same approach as Birmingham's did back in 1985, as their plans detailing the siting of the Olympic complex along with the use of other locations around the country to hold events is very similar to what we put forward," explained Gwynne, who is originally from Llandissilio and a former 400-metre runner himself, before he embarked on his career which has involved various sports management duties. Birmingham's bid back in 1985 saw them win an internal UK competition ahead of London and Manchester, then going on to compete against Brisbane, Belgrade, Paris and eventual hosts Barcelona. Although Birmingham lost out, the city still benefited from the bid. As Gwynne explained: "The bid hugely benefited tourism, leisure and sport in the city, and I'm sure that London and the whole of the UK will profit from this successful bid."