LONDON, Jan 27 - Lord Sebastian Coe, the former Olympic champion who masterminded London’s successful bid for the 2012 Games, was named as the Great Briton of 2005 at a ceremony today.
Coe won the public vote, beating off competition from seven other category winners at the glitzy bash at The Guildhall in London.
Round-the-world yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur won the sport category, beating off England cricket hero Andrew Flintoff. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver was rewarded for his battle for better school dinners in the campaigning bracket.
Animator Nick Park, creator of modelling-clay film stars Wallace and Gromit, won the creative industries gong, while Carphone Warehouse mobile phone store founder Charles Dunstone scooped the business prize.
Author Alan Bennett topped the arts category and Professor Fred Sanger took the science and innovation accolade for his DNA sequencing work.
Coe, who won the public life award, reckoned the greatest Britons were people who contribute''. Sometimes it is due to extraordinary circumstances, extraordinary people, or extraordinary times.
It is contributors, people who contribute, that is what this country has always been about at every level,'' the baron said. London Olympic bid chairman Coe was nicknamed Lord of the Rings’’ after the symbolic five-ring Olympic logo.
In July last year, under his stewardship, the British capital won the right to host the 2012 Games.
Coe won the 1,500 metres Olympic gold medals at the 1980 and 1984 Games.
Comedian Clive Anderson, who hosted the awards, moaned that people often chose military leaders as their Great Briton.
He said: ``It might be nice if we could edge off that for a bit and perhaps choose Charles Darwin who did something quite extraordinary and completely changed our view of the world.’’