A pleasant surprise awaited a number of journalists, including yours truly, who were still working at the Monaco Games Press Centre late on Friday night.

I was one of about 15 of the 130 journalists and photographers present here for the Games to have met the Sovereign Prince Albert of Monaco. He paid a surprise visit to the Centre where he also met and chatted with members of the staff taking care of us journalists and looking into our needs.

He also found time to chat with us and to my surprise, I found out that he still remembered we had met previously during the Luxembourg Games in 1995 and also in Malta in 2003. “Not a new face,” he said, and I quickly pointed out we had a chat during the athletics programme in Luxembourg which he remembered quite vividly. Prince Albert is still the president of the Monaco Olympic Committee and is a keen enthusiast of sport. He has been president of that committee since 1994.