Cornwall's management of the first day of the Olympic Torch Relay has been praised by the organisers of the London 2012 Olympics and by the world's media who said that if other areas managed to do as well as Cornwall, it would be a fantastic event for the UK.

After months of hard work and planning by Cornwall Council's community task force, up to a billion people from across the world watched as the Olympic Flame was flown by a helicopter from RNAS Culdrose to Land's End for the official launch of the Relay on Saturday, May 19.

More than 5,000 people, including hundreds of representatives of international, national, regional and local media, watched as three-times Olympic medallist Ben Ainslie lit the first Torch at the iconic post at Land's End.

More than 240 reporters, photographers and film crews from around the world were there to mark the historic moment when the flame was transferred from the Humphry Davy-style lantern to the first Olympic Torch just after 7am. These included representatives from the BBC, including the BBC national news; the World Service and Radio 5 live; Channel 4; ITN; Sky News; NHK, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation; Chinese Central Television and the world-wide Chinese news agency Xinhua News, alongside film crews from Brazil, the Netherlands, Finland, France, South America, Mexico, Poland, Asia and Australia.

There were also reporters and photographers from most of the UK's national newspapers, including the Sunday Times, Guardian, Observer, Independent, Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, The Mirror, Daily Telegraph, Reuters, the Press Association, and a number of international news and photo agencies.

Landed

The event was also covered by regional and local media, including BBC Spotlight and ITV Westcountry, Radio Cornwall, Pirate FM and Heart, the Cornish Times, our sister paper the Sunday Independent and other local weekly papers.

Similar numbers of the world's media had also been at RNAS Culdrose the previous day when the Olympic Flame was landed at the naval air base aboard BA flight 2012 accompanied by The Princess Royal, Lord Coe, chairman of Olympic organisers, London mayor Boris Johnson and footballer David Beckham. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was also on hand to welcome the flight to the UK.

More than 100,000 cheering people lined the streets of Cornwall to watch as the Olympic Flame passed through the 21 communities along the route.

Despite these large crowds, the months of planning helped to ensure that the event passed off without any major incidents. Communities put on packed programmes of activities.

The combination of the huge numbers of people who did watch the arrival of the Flame and the start of the Relay together with the impact of the world wide media coverage is expected to generate millions of pounds for the Cornish economy.

The Olympic Torch Relay section of the VisitCornwall website had received 38,000 additional visits by 5pm on Friday, May 18.

'For the 100,000 people in Cornwall who lined the route and took part in locally-organised events and the millions more from across the world who watched the start of the Olympic Torch Relay in Cornwall, Saturday May 19 will be a day they will never forget,' said Cornwall Council leader Alec Robertson.