(MENAFN - Arab News) The British Embassy in Riyadh is celebrating its 100-day countdown to the London Olympic Games in partnership with Atkins, the official engineering design services provider for the Games.
British Ambassador Sir Tom Phillips unveiled a mural on this occasion, and flagged off a 100-meter run by students to mark the occasion. A reception was also organized by the embassy in cooperation with Atkins on Sunday night.
Speaking at the reception, Phillips said: "It's certainly a matter of pride for me that the capital of my country will host this year's Olympics, and I know this from the visit I made to the Olympics site as to how thoroughly London is preparing for this task."
The embassy's reception was attended by British diplomats, representatives of Saudi and British business gentry, and other guests. The aim was to build Olympic fever in Saudi Arabia as Britain marked the 100-day countdown to the London Olympics last Wednesday.
Phillips, who thanked all his guests attending the reception, said: "London is the first city in the world to host the Olympics three times."
London hosted the Olympics before in 1908 and 1948. In July 2005, the city was chosen to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games this year. Britain is ready and fully prepared to welcome the world to what promises to be the greatest show on earth, said the British envoy.
Saba Said, an embassy official responsible for media and events, commended the work of Nina Amin, the lead artist, who created the mural on this occasion.
She also appreciated the role of three Saudi artists, Ibrahim Khabrani, Mohammed Al-Hamran and Zahra Alzailaei, who helped the team to organize the event at the embassy.
Richard Barrett, Atkins chief executive for the Middle East, said: "Over the last six years, our people have spent the equivalent of almost 450,000 days designing, planning and managing engineering projects, which will be vital to the success of the London 2012 Games. It is a great honor to be able to celebrate the 100 days to-go-milestone in the Kingdom, where our expertise is also playing an important role to deliver key infrastructure projects."
In the UK, many thousands of people are preparing to welcome the world in their roles as volunteers, torchbearers and performers in London 2012, he added. Saudi Arabia is also preparing a huge team composed of participants and officials who will be taking part in the Olympics.
