Bradford’s Telegraph & Argus won its own Olympic race today with its coverage of the announcement of the hosts for the 2012 Games.

The T&A’s Final edition began printing exactly six minutes after the announcement that London had won its bid at 12.50pm today.

Two colour front pages had been prepared with “London wins” and “Paris wins” versions after the shortlist was reduced to those two rival cities in the third round of voting.

Winners

Losing scenario: single column

Editor Perry Austin-Clarke said: “It was simply a case of telling the press room which plates to use and telling them to go for it.

“The team did us proud and, although we weren’t able to carry reaction to the decision, it meant that some people in Bradford city centre were able to read about the decision within 20 minutes of it being announced.

“The Olympic decision is especially important to Bradford because it could be the key that unlocks millions of pounds of proposed spending on the city’s sports facilities, which will then play host to some of the Olympic sportsmen and women who come to Britain to prepare for the Games in 2012.”

The other big local interest for the T&A was about Daryl Goodrich, the man who made the British promo film for the Olympic bid. Originally from Bradford, he was a former pupil of Bradford College of Art and was up against films made by Steven Spielberg (New York) and Luc Besson (Paris) – and made the edition’s page 3.

The Evening Standard in London printed an extra 100,000 copies of a special edition, with ten pages of olympic news around half an hour after the announcement was made, and was due to publish a 16-page supplement today.

Meanwhile, the Oxford Mail also hit the ground running with its final edition, which was put back to take in the IOC’s decision. The paper, featuring two pages of Olympic news and reaction, was on the streets within seven minutes of the historic announcement.