OLYMPICS
After Best Showing in 100 Years, British Athletes Getting the Royal Treatment
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Britain's most successful Olympic team in 100 years returned home yesterday to prepare for a host of very British honors -- open-top-bus tours, a reception at Buckingham Palace and the renaming of a pub.
Although fans were warned away from Heathrow Airport because of security concerns, some families came to meet the athletes at a nearby hotel.
Britain's team flew from Beijing to London on a specially commissioned British Airways Boeing 747, fitted with a gold nose and stocked with extra champagne.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was at the airport to greet the Olympians, who will also meet Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on Oct. 16 during the official day of celebrations.
Double gold medalist Rebecca Adlington has already received the most distinctive honor. Her local pub in the English city of Mansfield will be renamed "The Adlington Arms."
Meanwhile in Havana, Fidel Castro defended the Cuban taekwondo athlete who kicked a referee in the face in Beijing, saying Angel Matos was rightfully indignant over his disqualification from the bronze medal match.
Taekwondo officials want Matos and his coach banned for life from the sport. But Castro expressed "our total solidarity" for both Matos and his coach, Leudis Gonzalez.
-- From News Services
