The official Olympic cigarette - a Rothmans - was ceremoniously lit in Athens yesterday, and the smoker will run threequarters of a mile with it before the next smoker gets a light off it, takes a drag and runs to the next stage.
The official Olympic smoke is due to arrive outside the Hare and Feathers in Newham in time to be crushed out before the smoker buys a Macdonalds and a Pepsi and enters the Stadium to watch the ladies' soccer semi final
It's thought the ceremony of the Greek fag stretches back to the 1970's and the invention of the package holiday, when thousands of young Britons went to the Greek Islands for duty free goods and to be stared at by local fishermen.
