For the gaffe-prone, the thought of billions watching your every move on the world’s biggest sporting stage would be enough to cause a few sleepless nights.

For Boris Johnson, the London Mayor for whom foot-in-mouth is an incurable disease, it might induce perennial insomnia.

Which is why the outspoken Old Etonian is leaving nothing to chance when it comes to the handover of the Olympic flag at the closing ceremony of the Beijing Games.

On August 24, Mr Johnson will receive the flag – held horizontally by its bearers, according to protocol – from Guo Jinlong, the Mayor of Beijing, via Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Early in his campaign against Ken Livingstone, Mr Johnson had planned to be on holiday in Tuscany, believing – like many – that he stood little chance at the polls. Instead, he will be carefully digesting the IOC protocol guide to ensure that he does not cause national embarrassment. The IOC is unflinching in its adherence to pomp and ceremony.

The script dictates that he must wave the six-metre flag back and forth eight times. It will then be taken to City Hall to mark London’s four-year tenure as an Olympic city.

“I’ve been practising daily,” Mr Johnson admitted to an audience of British business leaders last week, adding that with three billion or so people watching, it would not be an astute political move “to drop it”.

In fact, only about 100 million people will tune in to the Olympics closing ceremony. But still . . .