No Angel of the South for Antony Gormley

A steel giant from the creator of the Angel of the North was the runner-up in the contest to become London's Olympic monument, it has been revealed.

Antony Gormley, the sculptor behind the landmark in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, hoped to create a £40 million colossus based on his own body, which would have towered over the 2012 site in east London.

But he was beaten to the commission by artist Anish Kapoor, whose £19 million deep-red twisted metal monument for the Olympic park divided critics when it was unveiled last month.

The statue would have been facing the rising sun in the east but the judging panel decided against Gormley's 390ft metal man because of its higher cost.