Divers take the plunge at Games

Mark Shipman and Pete Waterfield took fourth and fifth places respectively.

More spectators were expected for the finals later today but the supporters' enthusiasm on a grey morning reflected all that we've seen in the city's build-up.

Yet it felt like a plunge into the unknown here because with Britain's recent track record, nobody could safely predict whether these Games are going to be a success. For the foreseeable future of our sport, they had better be.

Because Manchester is charged with proving that Britain can still be a player in world sport after a series of debacles, particularly Wembley and the shambolic World Athletics Championships bid, have made us resemble third world amateurs.

We are on trial with the Olympic powerbrokers in Lausanne. The last two multi-sport events of anywhere near the same magnitude held here - the 1986 Commonwealths in Edinburgh and the 1991 World Student Games - were conspicuous failures.

If London does harbour ambitions to stage the 2012 Olympics, then we require a favour from our friends in the north.

It won't be for want of trying. It is not the Manchester organisers' fault that some top athletes have stayed away, choosing to chase dollars rather than medals; nor that they've had to cancel one of the morning sessions at the track because of lack of entries due to teams being unable to afford it in the global economic slump; nor that many outsiders will sneer at the whole thing as being an anachronism that few really care about.

They' re wrong. In Britain, maybe it does require the BBC to hype it up to generate a semblance of national enthusiasm but, in the competing nations, a billion viewers are expected to tune in.

What has been refreshing is to see that enthusiasm being reflected in a community throwing itself behind the Games with the sort of civic pride which you wonder if London could ever match.

A billion pounds has gone into resurrecting Manchester's centre after the IRA bombing of 1996 and into making this work. Few tickets remain unsold and an estimated million spectators-will attend. There are 5,000 official volunteers but everyone seems like a volunteer, including the old lady who, on seeing a friend of mine wearing an accreditation tag and about to get in his car, took him gently by the arm and warned: "Look, love. Don't forget, we drive on the left over here."

He hadn't the heart to tell her he was from Coventry.

Mancunians' goodwill is obvious - the Queen's jubilee baton was welcomed-into the town centre amid thousands of cheers last night - yet what's even more important for the image of British sport is that their city is now seen to be able to cope with the complex logistics of staging such a huge festival.

"We have been accused of not being able to run international sporting events," sports minister Richard Caborn said last night. " But Manchester has responded magnificently." Nobody except the BBC is pretending we'll be watching superhumans - apart from Ian Thorpe - but even if the standard will be uneven, the event will have enough world-class competition to savour.

Anyway, at the best editions, like the last in Kuala Lumpur, the motto's always been "never mind the quality, enjoy the party". With a bit of luck - and sunshine - Manchester and the Games could be made for each other.