An Olympic chauffeur cannot wait to see who he will be driving around at the Games this summer.

Paul Balding, 59, of Riddlesdown Road, Purley, is one of the lucky few picked to work as an official driver chauffeuring Olympic officials and athletes.

Mr Balding, a financial advisor, attended two training days after been picked from more than 250,000 applicants, which explained the role in further detail and got the chauffeurs familiar with the cars they will be driving.

He said: "So far it has been very good. I will be a T3 driver which means I get to drive the new BMW which is very nice.

"I can’t imagine I will have Usain Bolt sitting in the back but if we did get stuck in traffic he could probably get there faster than me anyway.

Mr Balding celebrates his 60th birthday in August and said working at the Games will be the perfect birthday present.

He said: "It will be a great experience. I will be semi-retired this year and it is my 60th birthday in August so part of my celebrations will be to work at the Olympics.

"I can’t imagine the Olympics will be coming back here again in my lifetime. I think it is going to be a great celebration and I just want to be part of it.

"I would love to chat to any of the athletes really as it will be a great experience for them to compete at an event like this."