Rogge moved by Radcliffe tears

IOC president Jacques Rogge has picked out Paula Radcliffe’s tearful marathon exit as one of the most moving moments of the entire Olympics.

Rogge has visited all 28 sports during the past two weeks of intense competition and will formally close the Games in the main stadium this evening.

However, few events have touched him as much as Radcliffe’s torture last Sunday, when she dramatically pulled out five miles from the end of the face, mentally and physically broken by the sweltering Athenian heat.

“I was moved by the tears of Paula Radcliffe when she pulled out of the marathon,” Rogge admitted.

“Those tears of sorrow contrasted with the tears of joy from athletes who have won. It was one of the things I will remember most.”

Rogge also praised British rower Matthew Pinsent for his fourth gold medal, which leaves him just one away from former team-mate Steve Redgrave, although he claimed the most striking observation to take from the Games was the rise of Asia as a sporting superpower.

China, who host the next Games in four years’ time, will finish runners-up to the United States in the overall medal chart, while Japan entered the top six for the first time.

“These Games have seen the awakening of Asia,” Rogge added.

“There has been major progress by China, extraordinary success from Japan plus notable performances from Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.

“This is a very obvious signal that Asia will be at full strength in Beijing.”

Rogge also confirmed that the IOC will hold post-Games talks with gymnastics, fencing and taekwondo in a bid to eradicate the judging controversies which have scarred those sports in Athens.

However, he distanced himself from the demand of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) that men’s all-round champion Paul Hamm should hand back his gold medal after a judging blunder cot South Korea’s Yang Tae Young the title.

“Our policy is quite simple,” he said. “We accept human error but not corruption and this specific instance is one of human error.

“Paul Hamm was declared the winner and received his medal – that is final.

“We will not participate in any effort to get him to give the medal back and we have made that perfectly clear to the FIG and the United States Olympic Committee.”