And suddenly it was all over. The Chinese, having displayed their mastery of all kinds of arts over the past 17 days, finally proved themselves masters of gentle anti-climax.

The Olympic flame, lit with such flummery by a flying businessman at the opening ceremony, was just snuffed out at the closing ceremony on Sunday night. One minute it was there and then, with the attention of everyone in the stadium diverted by some new coup de théâtre, it was gone.