The British Olympic Association’s chairman, Lord Coe, said the bombings were “an unspeakable act of barbarity” but said he was satisfied that security at the Winter Olympics – due to begin in the Russian resort of Sochi, 400 miles from Volgograd, in February – would be “good”. Asked whether the GB team could be kept away, he said: “Sport has, in the past, transcended all sorts of difficulties. That is not to minimise what we have witnessed in the last 24 hours but … at this moment the teams are preparing and I fully expect to take teams to the Winter Games.”