When magnificent defeat signals a name up in lights

With the sort of exquisitely subtle lateral thinking for which this nation is so well loved around the globe, Australian television chose the immediate aftermath of the opening ceremony to screen Chariots of Fire, the movie that introduced the world to a previously obscure character called Sam Mussabini.

Mr Mussabini, portrayed in the movie as a portly, moustachioed light and mild-supping, cigar-smoking northerner, was the man who coached Harold Abrahams to Olympic gold in 1924. Seldom seen without his stopwatch, Mr Mussabini was among the first of the modern breed in athletics to be obsessed with record-breaking times.

Seventy six years on, a near namesake proudly upholds that tradition.

This time the distance is 100 metres rather than 100 yards, and this time the action takes place in the water rather than on the track. In the case of Eric Moussambani, his area of interest has been setting a slowest time rather than a fastest. But these are minor details.

The important thing is that, in their distinct ways, each has made such an unforgettable contribution to Olympic history that one wonders whether Eric might not be a descendant of Sam's on the wrong side of the blanket as well as spiritually.

Here in Olympic Park, the extent of the miracle wrought by the plucky student from Equatorial Guinea can be gauged by the fact that his time of almost two minutes over the 100m has at times diverted the Australians from the usual endless recycling of their own swimming triumphs. Journalists from all corners of the planet are merrily swapping snippets about the Olympian who makes Eddie the Eagle look like Emile Zatopek, and it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that this magnificent athlete has brought the XXVIIth Olympiad if not to life (Ian Thorpe did that), then to a far more joyous level of existence than anyone had any right to expect. Affectionate mirth is a rare and delicious meal in so portentous an atmosphere as this.

Elsewhere, all else sticks more rigidly to well established convention. The mandatory expulsion of the drug-taking Bulgarian weightlifter took place last night, while early this afternoon Tim Henman contrived a reassuringly feckless straight sets defeat to the Slovak Karol Kucera.

Opinion continues to be split as to whether tennis should be an Olympic event at all - it's not so much the competitors' wealth that raises the issue as the fact that a gold medal is not really the pinnacle of their ambition - but the only thing that appeared to be concerning Tim was returning to the dressing room as soon as possible.