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Question: The Welsh medium stream at Brecon High School is to close, Powys council's cabinet has decided.

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It wants Welsh medium education to be centralised at Builth Wells High School instead but the plan has been strongly opposed by parents worried that pupils face a 40-mile (64km) round trip.
The council said pupil numbers had decreased to such a low level that the Welsh medium stream was not viable.
A total of 19 children are currently educated in the Welsh medium stream.
That is down from 67 in 2010-11.
The cabinet voted 5-2 in favour of the recommendation.
But the decision has been met with strong opposition from Brecon High parents and supporters of Welsh medium education.
Sian Drinan, whose son Berwyn is a pupil at the school, said expecting children to travel 20 miles (32km) each way to access Welsh medium education was "unacceptable".
Lisa Jones, whose three children have gone through the Welsh stream, said it was a very sad day.
"Until very recently children have been getting eight GCSEs through the medium of Welsh and I know of five pupils who have gone to Oxford, including my daughter," she said.
Rhian Young added: "The number of children who are going to leave the Welsh language, it's such a great shame, when it was starting to be a big thing here in Brecon."
But Councillor Arwel Jones, cabinet member for education, said increasing the provision for the Welsh language at Builth Wells would attract more pupils.
"If the quality of education is there, pupils will travel," he said.
ANALYSIS from Colette Hume, BBC Wales education correspondent
This is a mirror image of what we have seen recently at Llangennech in Carmarthenshire, where there is a campaign centred around closing the English medium stream and making the school entirely taught through the medium of Welsh.
In both cases there are strong protest groups keen to make their voices heard.
In January, Carmarthenshire county council voted in favour of making Ysgol Llangennech Welsh medium from September, removing the English stream. A bitter debate took place at County Hall with 38 councillors voting in favour of the plan and 20 against.
Carmarthenshire council says it wants to extend Welsh medium provision in schools partly in response to census figures which show a fall in the number of Welsh speakers in the county.
Parents in Brecon had vowed to continue their fight for Welsh medium secondary education in Brecon even if the cabinet vote went against them.
They warn the future of Welsh in the town could be under threat if children there are not able to continue learning in Welsh at secondary level locally.
They say they have been fighting for two years and are prepared to take their battle for what they say is their right to the courts.
The parents have not ruled out standing in the forthcoming council elections on the single issue of the Welsh-medium steam issue.
This is a battle set to continue.

Councillor Huw George confirmed an extraordinary meeting has been called for 26 November.
The BBC understands the consultation on Tasker Milward and Sir Thomas Picton schools in Haverfordwest may be stopped due to fears of a legal challenge.
The council's director for children and schools will offer to restart the consultation for both separately.
The charity that owns the Tasker Milward site had been unhappy with plans to merge the schools.
There were plans to open a new Welsh-medium comprehensive on the Sir Thomas Picton site.


Question: represent the text to find a corresponding news article that continues the story.

Question: An ex-police officer and a former PCSO have been jailed over their dealings with a disabled man who was later murdered in a vigilante attack.

represent the news to retrieve its missing first sentence

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['Represent the news to retrieve its missing first sentence', "3 May 2016 Last updated at 19:28 BST\nLord Chief Justice Sir Declan Morgan wanted funding for a five-year programme to hear the inquests, but a proposed bid for the money was not even discussed by executive ministers.\nBBC News NI's Home Affairs Correspondent Vincent Kearney reports."] == ['Represent the summary to retrieve the rest of the news story with more details!', 'A radical plan to deal with inquests into controversial killings during the Troubles has been put on hold after the Stormont Executive failed to sign off on a request for funding.']

Bijan Ebrahimi, 44, was killed in Bristol nearly three years ago amid false claims he was a paedophile.
PCSO Andrew Passmore, 56 and PC Kevin Duffy, 52 were convicted of misconduct in connection with the death and sacked by Avon and Somerset Police.
Duffy was jailed for 10 months and Passmore was jailed for four months.
Judge Neil Ford QC, the Recorder of Bristol, said it was with "a heavy heart" that he took the view that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
"It doesn't seem to me a proper consequence of your wrongdoing that the sentences need be long," the judge said.
"You have already suffered greatly. You have already lost your careers and in each of your cases there is genuine justification for mercy.
"You must not bear the responsibilities for the wider failings in the police which were beyond your control."
Iranian-born Mr Ebrahimi was beaten to death by a neighbour outside his flat in Capgrave Crescent, Brislington, and his body was set alight.
Lee James was convicted of his murder in 2013 and is serving a life sentence. Stephen Norley was sentenced to four years for assisting an offender.
Last year, a trial at Bristol Crown Court heard how Mr Ebrahimi repeatedly called police for help in the days before his murder.
The court was told Duffy regarded him as a "liar and a nuisance" and never went to see him, instead requesting Passmore conduct "a bit of a foot patrol" in the vicinity.
Four Avon and Somerset officers were accused of letting their dislike of Mr Ebrahimi influence their decision making.
Duffy and Passmore were convicted of misconduct in a public office while PCs Leanne Winter and Helen Harris were cleared.
The force said Duffy should have known Mr Ebrahimi was in danger but refused to speak to or visit him.
After sentencing, Avon and Somerset Police said it was "at the beginning" of a number of misconduct hearings and meetings involving 15 members of staff and officers".
"Our sole aim is to fully understand the circumstances around Mr Ebrahimi's treatment by our police officers and staff in the days leading up to his murder," a spokesman said.
The force paid tribute to Mr Ebrahimi's family who it said had "endured protracted legal and procedural processes" with dignity and composure.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is expected to publish its investigation findings after the conclusion of all the disciplinary matters.
Jan Williams, IPCC Commissioner, said the sentences handed down displayed the pair had "been properly held to account".
"Both were experienced in their roles and should have served Mr Ebrahimi far better in how they responded at a time when he was highly vulnerable," she added.

This is part of a news article. Represent it to retrieve the first (missing) sentence of the article

Arran Coghlan, 39, from Alderley Edge, was accused of assaulting two officers outside Mottram Towers in Stockport.
Mr Coghlan said he reacted in self-defence and did not know the men were police when they approached him.
The Crown Prosecution Service told Liverpool Crown Court the charges were being dropped as the prosecution could offer no evidence.
Mr Coghlan was recently cleared in a multi-million pound drugs conspiracy case, after being accused of leading a cocaine-smuggling operation.
He was arrested by the Serious Organised Crime Agency in September 2010 and cleared in June after prosecutors offered no evidence at Liverpool Crown Court.
Mr Coghlan, who has denied any links with criminality, was charged with the murder of his friend Stephen Akinyemi after a fight at his home in Alderley Edge in February 2010.
But prosecutors dropped that case because they could not prove he had not been acting in self-defence.
Mr Coghlan was injured in the fight but Mr Akinyemi - who was known to police - was shot in the head and stabbed to the upper body, despite wearing a stab vest.
The businessman was also cleared in 1996 of shooting Chris Little dead at the wheel of his Mercedes in Stockport.
In 2003, he stood trial for the murder of drug dealer David Barnshaw, who was kidnapped and forced to drink petrol before being burned alive in the back of a car in Stockport in 2001.
He was cleared after it transpired police failed to pass on important information about another possible suspect.


Question: Represent the summary to retrieve the rest of the news story with more details

Question: James Hook's second stint with the Ospreys started with a 21-14 pre-season defeat by Leicester in Bridgend.

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Hook came on as a second-half replacement at full-back while new signing from Cardiff Blues Cory Allen came on in midfield.
Ospreys scored tries by wing Jay Baker and number eight Dan Baker with two conversions from fly-half Luke Price.
Leicester's try scorers were Jonah Holmes, Harry Thacker and Jake Kerr with Joe Ford adding three conversions.
Ospreys: D Evans; T Williams, J Thomas, O Watkin, J Baker; L Price, T Habberfield (capt); P James, S Otten, M Fia, L Ashley, B Davies, J Ratti, O Cracknell, D Baker.
Replacements: I Phillips, R Jenkins, D Arhip, A Beard, J Cole, B Leonard, C Allen, J Hook, R McCusker, R Jones, W Jones, M Aubrey, B John, P Jones.

Represent the news article to find a single sentence that could be used as a summary.

The Liberty Stadium-based team will also return to Bridgend's Brewery Field to face Bristol in January.
Ulster were the last top-flight rugby union visitors to Swansea RFC's St Helen's home, a Celtic Cup game Ospreys won 23-16.
Ospreys also have games in the Anglo-Welsh Cup at Cardiff Blues and Wasps.


Question: Represent the text to find a corresponding news article that continues the story

Question: The SNP began the campaign as overwhelming favourites to win the Scottish Parliament election.

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Given ['this is part of a news article. represent it to retrieve the first (missing) sentence of the article', 'The 14-time major champion, 40, who shot a 65 on Friday, is eight under, 11 shots behind leader Hideki Matsuyama.\nThe world number 898 began with four birdies in the first five holes before falling away on the back nine.\nFor three straight days I\'ve gotten off to great starts - for two of those days I haven\'t been able to keep it going\nThe American\'s last PGA title was the Bridgestone Invitational in 2013.\nHe has not played competitively for 466 days, during which time he had two back operations.\nWoods kicked off his comeback this week with an opening-round 73 before the brilliant seven-under 65. On Saturday, the former world number one looked set to emulate his second-round feat after moving to five under for the day after 12 holes - but bogeys on 13 and 14 meant he dropped back.\nHe then found the water on the approach to the final hole as he finished with a double bogey.\n"For three straight days, I\'ve got off to great starts," Woods said. "For two of those days, I haven\'t been able to keep it going."\nJapan\'s Matsuyama carded six birdies and an eagle on his way to a stunning round of 63, which gave him a seven-shot lead. US Open winner Dustin Johnson and Open champion Henrik Stenson are behind him on 12 under.\nThe Hero World Challenge, hosted by Woods, is an unofficial money event on the PGA Tour but world ranking points are up for grabs.\nThe invitational event involves 18 players and includes three of this year\'s major winners - Johnson, Stenson and Jimmy Walker - and 2015 double major winner Jordan Spieth.\nOlympic champion Justin Rose, playing his first event after a seven-week break, withdrew with a bad back before play got under way at the four-round event in the Bahamas.\nMedia playback is not supported on this device'], a positive would be ['This is the first sentence of a news article. Represent it to easily retrieve the remaining few sentences of the article.', 'Tiger Woods is on course for a good finish in his first tournament in more than a year after posting a two-under-par 70 to lie 10th going into the Hero World Challenge final round.']

With just a week to go that remains the case. But if the opinion polls are to be believed, it is far from certain who will come second, while there is also a key battle for fourth place.
Since the Easter weekend, six polls of how people intend to vote in the election on 5 May have been conducted and published, each of them done by a different company.
Collectively these polls give us the best guide to the likely outcome. The average level of support for the principal parties across all these six polls is shown in our table.
The SNP are credited with 52% of the vote on the constituency ballot and 45% on the list.
On the constituency vote this represents a seven point increase on what the party secured in the last Scottish Parliament election in 2011, though on the list vote it is just a one point increase.
The SNP's performance in 2011 was regarded at the time as remarkable, not least because it proved sufficient to give the party an overall majority. Yet it seems that the party might do even better this time around.
Labour's poll support, in contrast, is well down as compared with what the party achieved in the ballot boxes five years ago. The party is credited with 20% of the constituency vote, down as much as 12 points. On the list it stands at 19%, down seven points.
Bad enough though these figures are, what will alarm Labour even more is that they the party only narrowly ahead of the Conservatives.
The polls suggest Ruth Davidson's party is standing at 17% on the constituency ballot, up four points on 2011, while it is perhaps doing even better on the list, with 18% (up six points).
That means the two parties are reckoned to be no more than one point apart on the list vote. Given the uncertainties that surround any opinion polling, this means that nobody can be sure who will come second on the list vote.
So far as winning seats is concerned, both Labour and the Conservatives are likely to be primarily, if not wholly, dependent on the "additional" seats that are allocated to the parties' on the basis of their share of the list vote.
So the closeness of the race for second place on the list vote means that it is also far from certain which party will have the larger presence in the next parliament.
The Liberal Democrats trailed badly in 2011, winning just 8% of the constituency vote, and 5% of the list ballot. The polls suggest the party finds itself in a similar predicament this time around; its average tally is just 6% on both votes.
But whereas five years ago the Liberal Democrats' performance was still good enough for the party to be the fourth largest party at Holyrood, this time that may not be the case.
The Greens, who for the most part are only putting up candidates on the list ballot, are at 9% on the list vote, up five points on their 2011 performance.
That means the party is three points ahead of the Liberal Democrats. If that were to be what emerges from the ballot boxes next week the Greens would almost undoubtedly secure more MSPs than the Liberal Democrats.
Still nobody who remembers the problems that bedevilled the polls in the general election a year ago will want to put too much faith in what they say now.
Meanwhile all the parties, however high or low their current standing, will be doing their best to win over voters in the week that is left - and so, they hope, prove the polls wrong.

Tap here to search for election results in your area.
Scotland: SNP 63, Conservative 31, Labour 24, Greens 6, Lib Dem 5
The SNP is claiming a "historic victory" but it did not win enough seats to form a majority government. The Conservatives, in a move that would been unthinkable in the past, pushed Labour into third place in Scotland, with leader Ruth Davidson winning her seat from the SNP. The Greens overtook the Lib Dems.
Wales: Labour 29, Plaid Cymru 12, Conservatives 11, UKIP 7, Lib Dems 1
UKIP had a good night and have won their first assembly seats, getting 12.5% of votes. Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood picked up a key seat from Labour, who remain the largest party but have just missed out on a majority.
England: Labour 58 councils won, Conservatives 38, Lib Dems 4
Labour had a mixed night in council elections, holding on to some key authorities that it had been expected to lose but facing criticism that it had not done well enough to suggest victory in the 2020 general election. With all 124 council results in, Labour was down 18 councillors on the last time these seats were contested, in 2012. The Conservatives were down 48 councillors on 2012 while the Lib Dems - who won control of one council, Watford - and UKIP had gained 45 and 25 councillors respectively. The Greens are down three.
Police and crime commissioners in England and Wales: Party candidates swept aside most of the independents that took control of police areas in the first PCC elections four years ago.  The number of independents went down from 12 to three, with the Conservatives going from 16 to 20 PCCs. Labour increased its number of PCCs from 12 to 15. Plaid Cymru was the only other party to get a look-in, with two PCCs, although UKIP ran the Conservatives a close second in a couple of areas. Turnout was up by more than 20% up on 2012, when it was among the lowest for any elections ever held. It was lowest in areas where local elections were not being held.
Northern Ireland: Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has 38 seats, Sinn Féin 28, Ulster Unionists 16, SDLP 12 and the Alliance Party eight. First minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster topped the poll in Fermanagh and South Tyrone. The Greens and People Before Profit Alliance have two seats each. The TUV leader Jim Allister remains its sole representative. In South Down, John McCallister became the first high-profile MLA to lose his seat.
London: Sadiq Khan has been elected the new Mayor of London, beating Conservative Zac Goldsmith by 1,310,143 votes to 994,614. Labour remains largest party on the London Assembly.
"We have tonight made history," Nicola Sturgeon, on the SNP winning a third consecutive Scottish Parliament election
"All across England last night we were getting predictions that we were going to lose councils. We didn't," Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
"Local election day for sitting prime ministers is supposed to be a day of dread... that wasn't what it was like last night," Prime Minister David Cameron
"I would have liked to see Labour do a lot better than this, because for me, my focus is on winning that general election and kicking the Tories out in 2020," former shadow chancellor Chris Leslie
"The SNP must now let Scotland move on. There has been a material change," Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson
"A new dawn has already broken over the Valleys, people have voted for change," Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood
"Scotland has not been a success for us, but Wales is a big success," UKIP leader Nigel Farage
"My burning ambition for our city, that will guide my mayoralty, is to ensure that all Londoners get the opportunities that my city gave to me," London Mayor Sadiq Khan
Analysis - By Laura Kuenssberg, BBC political editor
Jeremy Corbyn's party has swerved universal disaster - losses so far in England are fewer than some had feared. But with meltdown in Scotland, and losses where there should traditionally be gains, Labour would be foolish to take much comfort from the results.
There is little to suggest that voters believe the Labour Party on its current performance is on its way to a general election victory. Mr Corbyn's internal enemies are not likely to wield the knife, but there are already calls for more decisive leadership, more appeals to go to the centre ground.
More of Election 2016 in pictures


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Question: Doctors have welcomed an extra £20m of Scottish government money aimed at easing the pressure on GPs.

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Health Secretary Shona Robison announced the funding as she addressed a GPs' conference in Clydebank.
She also said work would begin on bringing forward measures to tackle workload pressures.
The move came after the British Medical Association warned the GPs were becoming "increasingly burnt-out" by the "mounting pressures" on them.
Ms Robison said she was "committing £20m of additional investment, directly into general practice over the next year, because I recognise the need to provide more immediate support".
She added: "General practice is a highly-valued part of our healthcare system in Scotland and we must get it back to being the profession of choice for more young doctors.
"We must also look after our GPs at whatever stage in their career to ensure the basics are right."
The funding announced includes:
Ms Robison said the announcement "demonstrates the commitment of me and my government to supporting, sustaining and enabling general practice to flourish."
Responding to the announcement, Dr Alan McDevitt, chair of the BMA's Scottish GP Committee, said it would help to alleviate some of the pressures that GPs are facing.
But he said more needed to be done, and he welcomed the health secretary's "collaborative approach to finding the solutions".
He added: "The cabinet secretary has today demonstrated that she recognises and understands the problems facing general practice.
"It is essential that this recognition is also matched by a financial commitment to the future of general practice by investing in a new GP contract."
Mr McDevitt had earlier told delegates how family doctors "are increasingly becoming burnt-out by the mounting pressures and demands of running a GP practice".
He said that while the new GP contract "will resolve many of the current problems facing general practice", there was "a lack of willingness on the part of the government to actually commit to adequately funding the new contract".
Dr Miles Mack, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners in Scotland, said the funding was "promising news" that looked like a "small but hopefully significant step in the right direction".
He added: "We are pleased to see an emphasis on the quality of patient care. Similarly, the £2m for IT infrastructure is desperately needed.
"The development of an occupational health service for primary care staff will also be warmly welcomed, such is the pressure those at the front line have been facing for so long."
Scottish Labour's health spokesman, Dr Richard Simpson, said any extra funding for primary care was to be welcomed.
But he added: "The SNP have cut £1.6bn from primary care in the past decade, so in that context £20m is little more than a sticking plaster.
"The SNP government in Edinburgh has presided over the biggest crisis in family doctors for a generation. We are seeing the result of that now, with practices serving communities overstretched and under resourced."
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Jim Hume accused the government of adopting a "sticking-plaster approach" which will "not be enough to plug the gaps in Scottish general practices".
He said: "Hundreds of practices have GP posts sitting empty for six months or more and we are facing a black hole in practices by 2020 when a third of GPs currently working will have retired.
"The health secretary herself revealed the cuts to GP services as a share of total NHS spending and in last month's budget John Swinney cut that share again."

British Medical Association GP leader Dr Chaand Nagpaul said doctors were having to rush patients to keep up.
And he said this could be potentially dangerous in terms of identifying cancer and getting medicines right.
But ministers in England responded by promising they would invest in services to address the concerns.
The frank admission by Dr Nagpaul comes as the BMA releases the results of an online survey of nearly 2,900 practices in England and 145 in Wales - about one in three of the total in both nations.
In England it showed that 55% thought the quality of the service their practices was providing had deteriorated in the past 12 months.
Some 68% said their workload was unmanageable, while 92% reported demand had increased in the past year.
Similar findings were reported in Wales.
Dr Nagpaul said: "It is unsustainable and getting to the point where it is not safe. The ageing population means many of our patients have multiple conditions and are on multiple medicines, but we simply don't have the time to properly consider how they interact.
"On cancer we are having to make rushed decisions. And we are seeing growing numbers of patients with dementia - and yet just have 10 minutes to see them.
"It's not enough. We are being forced to let down patients. We need to see more investment in general practice so we can keep up with demand and have longer 15-minute consultations."
Figures cover England only
The issue has been raised by the BMA just a week after the NHS England report into the death of 12-month-old William Mead, from Cornwall, highlighted workload pressures as one of the possible reasons GPs failed to properly diagnose his chest infection.
Mr Nagpaul believes another 10,000 GPs could be needed to plug the current gap in England - the government has promised another 5,000 this Parliament, but that is expected to cover the push to provide seven-day opening.
To pay for this, funding for GPs will be increasing by 5% every year, the government has said.
Health minister Alistair Burt added: "General practice is at the heart of the improvement we want to see in the NHS. We recognise absolutely that it is under pressure, which is why we are delivering record investment.
"The health secretary will shortly announce further support for GPs, which should assist in meeting the pressures doctors are reporting."
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Question: Brando won the Ayr Gold Cup, edging 4-1 favourite Growl into second place.

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Under Tom Eaves, 11-1 Brando was comfortable despite late pressure from the Richard Fahey-trained Growl.
It was a fourth win in the Ayr Gold Cup for trainer Kevin Ryan in the past 10 years, following wins for Advanced (2007), Our Jonathan (2011) and Captain Ramius (2012).
Hoof It claimed third place, with G Force making a late dash for the line to finish fourth.

represent the news article to find a single sentence that could be used as a summary

Frankie Dettori sealed a double on the 14-1 shot, a first British win for trainer Xavier Thomas-Demeaulte.
Fair Eva, a daughter of legendary racehorse Frankel, failed to win for the second time in a row, having finished third in the Lowther Stakes.
Dettori also won on 11-8 favourite Journey, who took the Nayef Stakes for a second successive year.
Journey finished three and a quarter lengths clear of Lady Of Camelot in a 1-2 for trainer John Gosden.
But Dettori was denied a treble as Nathra finished third in the Joel Stakes behind 15-2 winner Cougar Mountain, ridden by Ryan Moore for trainer Aidan O'Brien.


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Question: Six-time gold medal winning Olympian Sir Chris Hoy says while "weeding out cheats" will not be achieved overnight, he hopes it can go some way to renewing people's faith in sporting success.

Hoy says there is nothing worse as an athlete to have a special sporting moment ruined by suspicion.
"My message is it's possible to win clean," he told BBC Scotland.
"Not every performance that you see that is outstanding should be met with a raised eyebrow."
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada)'s independently commissioned report found evidence of a Russian four-year, state-run "doping programme" across the "vast majority" of Olympic sports.
Hoy, who is in Rio, says everyone wants a clean Olympics and athletes are in favour of the stringent testing process if it helps ensure their sport, and their success, is fair.
He said: "Re-testing samples from the Beijing and London Olympics, the message to the athletes is 'Yes you might pass the test today but if you are cheating we are going to catch you at some point. It'll catch up with you, so what is the point in cheating?'.
"You are going to have that fleeting moment of glory and then it's all going to be taken away from you, so don't do it.
"There will always be somebody out there who will try and cheat, that's human nature."
Hoy also believes there are a number of Scots capable of winning medals, with Dunblane brothers Andy and Jamie Murray set to lead the way.
They will partner each other in the tennis doubles, while newly crowned Wimbledon champion Andy will attempt to successfully defend his Olympic gold medal from London 2012.
"Andy has had a cracking year so far," Hoy said. "You wouldn't bet against him winning gold here. But it's just so exciting, there's just so many names who are capable of winning medals here.
"In the cycling team, Callum Skinner. I remember when he was a kid at Meadowbank and he's progressed through, worked incredibly hard and fought for his place. There was real competition to replace myself in the sprint team and some of the times have been mind boggling.
"Katie Archibald, she's already been world champion, world record holder, European champion, but this is her first Olympics. And they are the favourites for the women's team pursuit along with Laura Trott and Elena Barker."

Represent the news article to find a single sentence that could be used as a summary

When the action gets under way on Friday and the world's finest athletes go head to head, London 2017 will of course evoke memories of the London 2012 Olympics, which for many back then, seemed like the best of times for the sport.
Without retired Jessica Ennis-Hill, British medal prospects may be a little less certain these days. Big names like David Rudisha, Greg Rutherford and Andre de Grasse are missing through injury.
However, with Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt preparing to race for the last time before retirement, and new stars emerging like South African Wayde van Niekerk and Laura Muir of Great Britain, public appetite remains undimmed, with more tickets having been sold than any previous World Championships.
But in other ways, much has changed.
Media playback is not supported on this device
London 2017 comes at a pivotal time for the sport and feels like an opportunity that must be seized if track and field is to restore its reputation and relevance. It should also perhaps be savoured while it lasts.
Ed Warner, co-chairman of the event, certainly believes so.
"This could be the last great, great traditional-format championships," he told me.
"London has a great offering. It's a huge city passionate about sport, it's got the world's greatest athletics stadium and it's going to be full. It creates that cocktail of athletes and fans that the sport needs to thrive globally.
"Going forwards you need to see slight changes to the format - a compression of the championships so that it's more accessible in many more cities around the world. This is a traditional championship - 10 days, a lot of competition - and it's going to work because we are going to have a full crowd every time but the sport can't always do that."
With athletics facing mounting competition for talent, sponsors and fans from NFL through to to esports, and changing viewing habits in the digital age, IAAF president Lord Coe has said that remaining relevant to the young was his sport's greatest challenge.
Swathes of empty seats at the recent British trials in Birmingham only served to amplify such concerns.
"The biggest threat to athletics and to all traditional sports is esports and you have to rise to that challenge and embrace technology and different ways of presenting sport to be relevant to a new generation," agrees Warner.
"It's even happening with football where we are seeing viewing figures declining as people consume their sports in a different way. The challenge for the IAAF is to structure competition so that it's more bitesize and technology-friendly and does catch the imagination of young people."
But this is about a lot more than new formats.
Consider the great state-sponsored doping scandal that plunged athletics into crisis last year. From the absence of the suspended Russian team to the awarding of medals to athletes following retrospective testing years after they were cheated out of them, the ramifications will be painfully obvious over the next 10 days.
Having established a new, independent Athletics Integrity Unit headed up by respected former World Anti-Doping Agency chief David Howman, and taken a much tougher stance with the Russians than the International Olympic Committee - which controversially allowed the country to compete at the Olympics - the IAAF has tried to restore faith, pledging more intelligent testing, and a cultural shift on the part of athletes, coaches and administrators.
But there will no escaping the past. Not if boos and jeers ring out when one of the 19 Russians allowed special dispensation to compete in London wins an event in neutral kit and the IAAF anthem is played, rather than their own.
Not when the country has found it so hard to say sorry for the staggering findings of the scandal.
Not when Britain's Mo Farah loses patience at being asked another awkward question about his biological passport, or the Usada investigation into his coach Alberto Salazar.
Not when Coe admits he cannot guarantee cheating will be absent from these championships or Bolt warns cheats the sport "could die" if they don't stop.
Not when conversation turns to the European Athletics' recent proposal to wipe all words records set before 2005 from the history books in a bid to reboot the sport.
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And certainly not when Icarus, the remarkable film exposing how Russia subverted the entire anti-doping system and distorted both the 2012 Olympics and 2014 Winter Games (among many other events), is released globally by Netflix on Friday.
Filmmaker and co-star Bryan Fogel, who set out to make a documentary charting his experiment on the effect performance-enhancing drugs would have on his amateur cycling career but who instead stumbled across the biggest scandal in sports history, told BBC Sport of his fears for athletics.
"It's not like Russia has dominated world sports, certainly it is logical to believe this is not just a Russian problem," he says.
"The question is have other countries facilitated the kind of fraud that Russia facilitated? And to that I don't have the answer. I know of other scandals that [Russian whistleblower] Grigory Rodchenkov has shared with me, of other countries and other instances where some pretty spectacular frauds have happened."
"The only way the anti-doping system in sport is ever going to work is if somehow medical technology, science stops, and nothing else comes forward.
"The problem is that the science is always evolving. So it's always going to be a cat and mouse game. And when you have billions and billions of dollars and pounds, trillions, on the line of what international sports is, how do you truly combat this problem, or this illusion of what we want to believe is clean sports? They're the issues that are facing the anti-doping system."
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Warner is more upbeat, insisting London 2017 can still be a celebration.
"I don't think it will overshadow this event, but it is clearly a cloud that sits above the whole of the sport," he says.
"You can't hide from it and nor should you. The sport has called the cheats out and isn't hiding from that and I celebrate that approach to it.
"For me, when we look back at the end of the championships will we think: 'Russian X wasn't here and Russian Y wasn't here?' I don't think so.
"It's the same with an athlete with an injury. It's a great shame [defending champion] David Rudisha won't be at the championships, but the 800m for me will still be a wonderful event and people will remember what happen on the track.
"So they won't remember the missing Russians and more fool the Russians for what they did and they are paying the punishment.
"If you asked a young child walking out of here on Sunday week whether they have had a joyous time, then I think they will have done - and I think we are going to have 700,000 people coming through here having a joyous time.
"Ultimately it's about great sport and whatever happens in the background we have got to push through that."
As the action gets under way, and athletics enjoys its moment in the sun amid a packed sporting summer, it must hope that London 2017 is not sabotaged in the way we now know London 2012 was.
Day-to-day guide - what to watch and when


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Question: Clashes have broken out between French police and demonstrators during a May Day parade in Paris.

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Trade unions used the traditional march to protest against a proposed labour law to be discussed by parliament.
Police responded with tear gas when youths began throwing missiles, bringing the march to a standstill.
France has seen two months of unrest over the reforms. Several police officers were injured during countrywide protests on Thursday.
The proposed law, to be debated in parliament on Tuesday, would remove some of the protection workers enjoy against being laid off, in an attempt to encourage businesses to hire more people.
The socialist government says its aim is to combat chronic unemployment, but opponents say it will let employers bypass workers' rights on pay, rest time and overtime rates.
What's behind France's economic malaise?

At least 75,000 demonstrators had convened in the capital as the upper house of parliament debated changes to employment laws.
One of the city's best-known attractions, the Eiffel Tower, was closed due to strike action by staff.
The labour reform makes it easier for employers to hire and fire workers.
It would also relax the limit on working hours. The government forced the changes through the National Assembly last month without a vote.
Police said the clashes in Paris involved "several hundred masked people", who threw chunks of paving, set bins ablaze and smashed some shop windows. Police responded with tear gas and water cannon.
In the evening two "Autolib" electric cars were set ablaze, as were four other vehicles elsewhere in Paris, police said.
Students and several unions organised protests across the country, part of weeks of industrial action.
The CGT union said 1.3 million people demonstrated, but the police estimate was much lower - about 125,000.
Rail workers and taxi drivers are also on strike, disrupting transport.
The crowd marched from south-east Paris to the Invalides, a monument complex and magnet for tourists.
The unrest coincided with the Euro 2016 football championship - a major challenge for French police, marred already by violence among fans.
In a separate protest, Air France pilots went on strike to demand better working conditions.
An estimated 20% of all Air France flights were cancelled as a result, the company said.
French labour reform bill - key points:
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he could "no longer bear the attacks against the police".
He called on protesters "to find within themselves a little humanity, tolerance and respect".
Demonstrations against the reform bill began on 9 March and led to a massive demonstration on 31 March, when nearly 400,000 people came out in protest across France.


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Question: Northern Ireland beat Britain to a plastic £5 note by 17 years.

The Bank of England is releasing its first £5 polymer note, but the Northern Bank was the first in the UK to issue a polymer fiver back in October 1999.
Two million special edition notes were made to mark the millennium; they featured an illustration of the Space Shuttle on one side.
The bank stopped issuing them in 2008 but, according to a spokesman, they are still "usable and exchangeable".
Internet auction sites are selling the £5 notes for as much as £125 each.
Two versions of the note were issued - the one put into general circulation has an MM serial number and was followed by a collector version with a Y2K prefix.
The Northern Bank took the name of its owner, Danske Bank, in 2012.
But when it issued its polymer note it was owned by the National Australia Group which issued plastic currency in other areas.
In Northern Ireland legislation exists to allow its local banks to print and manage their own supply of notes.
In 2005, the Northern Bank reprinted all of its bank notes shortly after £26.5m was stolen from its head office by the IRA.
The plastic fiver was the only type of note not replaced.
The new Bank of England fiver will be followed by a £10 polymer note in summer 2017 and the £20 note by 2020.
The paper £5 note will continue to be accepted until its legal tender status is withdrawn in May 2017.
The three Scottish issuing banks are also printing their next £5 and £10 notes on polymer. Clydesdale Bank will issue their polymer £5 on 27 September 2016, Bank of Scotland on 4 October and RBS in November.

5 January 2016 Last updated at 06:51 GMT
It is 21 metres long, weighs about 96 tonnes and had a top speed of 100 miles per hour.
Here's our own flying Scotsman, Martin, with more.


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Question: Billy Bodin's 29th-minute effort earned Bristol Rovers victory over Swindon Town in a low-key West Country derby in League One.

The midfielder's left-footed shot from just outside the box went in via both posts, the ball rolling across the goal-line before spinning in.
Rovers were value for a bigger winning margin, but made hard work of beating a Swindon side, who barely managed a worthwhile effort on goal.
Matt Taylor hit the crossbar with a 77th-minute shot from outside the box but the hosts almost paid for not making their dominance tell when late shots from Ben Gladwin and John Goddard were both deflected just wide.
Rovers created all the decent chances in the first half. An early Chris Lines free-kick was saved at the second attempt by Lawrence Vigouroux, who then produced a better save to keep out Bodin's close-range shot.
Centre-back Ryan Sweeney almost marked an impressive Rovers debut with a goal on 16 minutes, but Gladwin cleared his header off the line.
After Bodin's goal, Ellis Harrison's header was cleared off the line by Raphael Rossi-Branco and the interval was reached without Rovers keeper Joe Lumley making a save.
Report supplied by the Press Association.
Match ends, Bristol Rovers 1, Swindon Town 0.
Second Half ends, Bristol Rovers 1, Swindon Town 0.
Attempt missed. Raphael Rossi Branco (Swindon Town) header from the centre of the box is too high.
Corner,  Swindon Town. Conceded by Daniel Leadbitter.
Attempt blocked. John Goddard (Swindon Town) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
Luke James (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Nathan Thompson (Swindon Town).
Substitution, Swindon Town. Dion Conroy replaces Lloyd Jones.
Attempt saved. Stuart Sinclair (Bristol Rovers) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Attempt missed. John Goddard (Swindon Town) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left.
Corner,  Swindon Town. Conceded by Tom Lockyer.
Attempt blocked. Ben Gladwin (Swindon Town) right footed shot from more than 40 yards on the right wing is blocked.
Corner,  Bristol Rovers. Conceded by Lloyd Jones.
Substitution, Bristol Rovers. Luke James replaces Matty Taylor.
Matty Taylor (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by James Brophy (Swindon Town).
Foul by Byron Moore (Bristol Rovers).
Charlie Colkett (Swindon Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Matty Taylor (Bristol Rovers) hits the bar with a right footed shot from outside the box.
Foul by Jordan Stewart (Swindon Town).
Chris Lines (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt saved. Ollie Clarke (Bristol Rovers) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal.
Substitution, Swindon Town. Jordan Stewart replaces Islam Feruz.
Foul by Rory Gaffney (Bristol Rovers).
James Brophy (Swindon Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Hand ball by Islam Feruz (Swindon Town).
Substitution, Bristol Rovers. Byron Moore replaces Billy Bodin.
Substitution, Bristol Rovers. Rory Gaffney replaces Ellis Harrison.
Attempt missed. Ben Gladwin (Swindon Town) header from the centre of the box is too high.
Foul by Daniel Leadbitter (Bristol Rovers).
James Brophy (Swindon Town) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Daniel Leadbitter (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Islam Feruz (Swindon Town).
Matty Taylor (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Fankaty Dabo (Swindon Town).
Nathan Thompson (Swindon Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Ollie Clarke (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Nathan Thompson (Swindon Town).
Matty Taylor (Bristol Rovers) wins a free kick on the right wing.
Foul by Raphael Rossi Branco (Swindon Town).

John Still's side are fourth in the table, five points clear of sixth-placed Dover Athletic with two games remaining.
Wrexham secured their first win in eight games with a 3-1 victory at York City on Easter Monday.
Dean Keates' Dragons are 11th in the table ahead of their final home game of the campaign.


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Question: Two men have died in separate road crashes in the Republic of Ireland.

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A 24-year-old pedestrian died after he was struck by a lorry at Drumquill, on the Castleblayney to Annyalla Road in County Monaghan.
Later on Friday morning, a 36-year-old man died following a two-car collision at Tully Esker on the Drogheda to Monasterboice Road in County Louth.
A man and a woman in their 30s were taken to hospital.
They were travelling in the other vehicle.
Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

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The men, aged 51 and 24, were detained on Friday. A 25-year-old man who was arrested on Thursday has also been released.
Mr McKay, who was 36, was shot dead at his home on the Longlands Road last month. His funeral took place on Friday.
At least two armed men were involved in the attack.


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Question: Environmentalists are calling for "urgent action" after an increase in the number of Edinburgh streets affected by transport pollution.

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There are now an additional six miles of streets that have been deemed officially polluted in the capital.
Tourist areas Princes Street, George Street, most of the Royal Mile and the Grassmarket are all now included.
Edinburgh City Council said it was looking at ways to cut pollution in the busiest parts of the city.
Gorgie Road, London Road and some of Easter Road also make up the additional six miles of polluted streets.
The city council is extending its existing three air pollution problem zones: central, St Johns Road and Great Junction Street and adding two new ones at Inverleith Row and Glasgow Road.
The Cowgate, the Grassmarket, most of Gorgie Road, London Road and the top of Easter Road will be added to the central zone.
The Great Junction Street zone has had Bernard Street, Commercial Street and North Junction Street added.
Dr Richard Dixon, Friends of the Earth Scotland's director, said: "Having to include even more streets in the pollution zones is a sure sign that a decade's worth of action plans have failed.
"Pollution from cars, vans, buses and lorries are still making the capital's air bad for our health and the council needs to take urgent action on transport to bring Edinburgh's air up to scratch.
"We need fewer and cleaner vehicles, as well as more action on public transport, walking and cycling."
Councils are obliged to declare air pollution problem zones for locations where European, UK or Scottish air quality targets are not going to be met.
Lesley Hinds, the city's transport and environment convener, said: "Despite 98% of our city meeting strict air quality standards, this is still an important issue for the council and local communities in Edinburgh.
"There are a number of proposals currently being considered that will look at reducing pollution in our busiest parts of the city.
"These include the council's city centre vision which aims to encourage walking and cycling in the city, as well as our current consultation on low emission zones."

The men were spotted on a nearby rubbish dump blamed for attracting birds days after their increasing presence was called an "emergency".
It is feared a bird strike could cause a crash, but the Lebanon Eco Movement have said shooting the seagulls breaches an international conservation agreement.
It is unclear who the hunters are.
Some activists called the shooting a "massacre", while the Lebanon Eco Movement released a statement condemning the killings "under the eyes of the security forces" and in light of the government's vow "to preserve the environment".
The statement accused them of violating the International Convention for the Protection of Aquatic Birds.
Transport Minister Yusef Fenianos promised to deal with the problem earlier this week, after local media reported a Middle East Airlines flight encountered a large flock of birds as it landed on the airport's west runway.
It was suggested an increase in devices emitting bird of prey calls around the airport to scare off the animals could solve the issue.
But groups said this would not go far enough, and called for the dump to be closed - which it was on Thursday, less than a year after it opened.
It had been part of an effort try and resolve the city's waste problems, which had seen piles of rubbish stack up on the streets following the closure of the main dump.
But a planned waste processing facility on the site is yet to be built, allowing rubbish to build up as high as 9m (30ft), according to reports.
As a result, it was attracting rodents and increasing numbers of birds, which were seen flocking around the runways of the airport.


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Question: Britain's Martyn Rooney retained his European 400m title with a superb performance in Amsterdam.

represent the news article to find a single sentence that could be used as a summary To give you a sense - "['Represent the news to retrieve its missing first sentence', "Tourism officials use the HBO show to draw visitors to Northern Ireland, where much of the hit series is filmed.\nThe tapestry was woven and hand-embroidered from material provided by Thomas Ferguson Irish Linen in Banbridge.\nIt is one of the last surviving mills in Northern Ireland.\nTaking around three months to make, the tapestry depicts scenes from seasons one to six.\nEach week the tapestry will be added to with scenes from season seven, which has just been released, taking its final size to 77m.\nThe artwork was unveiled at the Ulster Museum in Belfast on Monday afternoon.\nGame of Thrones has been filmed in Northern Ireland since 2010 and has received around Â£14m in financial support.\nHowever, Screen NI estimates the return to the local economy has been in the region of Â£150m.\nSince 2014, Tourism Ireland has been using Game of Thrones to help promote Northern Ireland to visitors, aiming to capitalise on the show's huge worldwide appeal.\nTourism numbers hit 2.6m in 2016, a rise of 12%."]" should be close to "['Represent the text to find a corresponding news article that continues the story', 'A 66m tapestry telling the story of TV series Game of Thrones has been unveiled at a Belfast museum as part of a new tourism campaign.']"

The 29-year-old, who won gold in Zurich in 2014, started slowly but produced a strong second 200m to win in 45.29 seconds, ahead of Czech Pavel Maslak.
Rooney failed to secure an automatic place at this summer's Olympic Games, having finished outside the top two at the British Championships last month.
But he could still be named in the squad for Rio by the British selectors.
"It is the first time I have had chance to defend a title so I am very proud to have won," Rooney told BBC Sport.
"The two boys who finished ahead of me [at the British Championships] had a fantastic championships. They deserve their places in the team.
"As much as I could do today was to win and hopefully I will get the nod. I'm sure I have done enough.
"I am double European champion. It would be very interesting not to get picked."
Britain's Jazmin Sawyers, who has already qualified for Rio via her performance in the British Championships, won silver in the long jump with a leap of 6.86m, behind Ivana Spanovic of Serbia who jumped 6.94m.
Briton Danny Talbot was upgraded to 200m bronze after the Netherlands' Churandy Martina was disqualified for a lane violation.
Martina had originally completed a sprint double in front of his home fans in 20.47, with Talbot initially missing out on a medal by five hundredths of a second as he finished fourth in 20.56.
Spain's Bruno Hortelano, in 20.45, was handed gold, with Azeri-born Turk Ramil Guliyev (20.51) upgraded to silver.
Anyika Onuora won bronze in the women's 400m, edging fellow Briton Christine Ohuruogu into fourth.
Like Rooney, neither are assured of Olympic selection.
The race was won by Italy's Libania Grenot in 50.73, with France's Floria Guei second.
Asha Philip came fourth in a women's 100m race won by home favourite Dafne Schippers in a rapid time of 10.90.
Philip's fellow Brit Desiree Henry, who is aiming for the discretionary third place at Rio, did not finish the race and had to be taken off the track on a stretcher having suffered what appeared to be an abdominal injury.
In the men's 10,000m, Dewi Griffiths missed out on the Olympic qualifying standard time of 28 minutes but ran a new personal best of 28 minutes 28.55secs to finish fourth.
There was a Turkish top two in the race with Polat Kemboi Arikan winning ahead of Ali Kaya, with Spain's Antonio Abadia finishing third.
Rhys Williams, who was European champion in 2012, finished fifth in the men's 400m hurdles.
Gold went to Turkey's Yasmani Copello Escobar, who won in 48.98secs, with Spain's Sergio Fernandez second and Kariem Hussein of Switzerland third.

The Scot, 23, beat Russian Liliya Shobukhova's record by 1.45 seconds to post a new mark of eight minutes 26.41 seconds, fifth on the world-best list.
Muir is preparing for next month's European Indoor Championships.
England's Andrew Pozzi won the 60m hurdles in Germany in 7.44 seconds - the fastest time in the world this year and-third fastest in British history.
Pozzi ran a personal best of 7.49 in the heats before bettering that mark as he finished 0.14secs outside Colin Jackson's British record in the final.
Dina Asher-Smith set a world best time of 7.13 in the 60m heats before being edged into second in the final by Jamaican Gayon Evans (7.14).
Muir broke the British indoor 5,000m indoor record in Glasgow last month, and took Kelly Holmes' British 1500m record outdoors last July.
She then beat her own 1500m mark in Paris on her way to winning last year's Diamond League title.
As well as the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade in early March, she is also targeting a medal at the World Championships in London in August, after finishing seventh in last year's 1500m Olympic final in Rio.
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Question: A man who spent more than 30 hours on the roof of a house in Hull to evade arrest has appeared in court.

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Cobain Pearson, 21, of Cholmley Street, Hull, was charged with threatening a person with a blade in a public place.
Humberside Police said three men arrested in connection with the incident on Sunday - two aged 19 and one aged 18 - have been bailed.
A 33-year-old man is in Hull Royal Infirmary with serious head injuries following the incident.
Mr Pearson climbed on the roof at about 03:55 GMT on Sunday after police were called to a disturbance on Cholmley Street at about 18:15.
He came down after negotiations with police on Monday morning.
Police said Mr Pearson was also charged with grievous bodily harm with intent, violent disorder and two counts of criminal damage.
He is next due to appear for trial at Hull Crown Court on 11 April.

Victim Neil Parsons needed 167 stitches when he was attacked at a lobster festival at the Hardwick Hall Hotel in Sedgefield in April 2012.
Teesside Crown Court heard John Mullen, 50, from Manchester, missed Mr Parsons' carotid artery by millimetres.
Mullen admitted wounding with intent and is due to sentenced on 8 February.
The court was told Mr Parson runs a portable toilet business and was working at the event with his son, who witnessed the attack.
After the incident Mullen, from Kearsley Road, Manchester, fled the country on a false passport and flew to Abu Dhabi and then to Bangkok.
He was eventually arrested in February last year when he arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, after almost four years on the run.
He was remanded in custody.


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Question: South Africa has resolved a trade row with the US which threatened millions of dollars worth of business, its trade minister has said.

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The US had said it would throw South Africa out of its preferential trade programme over its refusal to allow the importation of American chickens.
President Obama had set the end of 2015 as the deadline to resolve the dispute.
Last-minute negotiations which dealt with South African health concerns ended the row.
For more than a decade, South Africa - like several other African countries - has enjoyed preferential trading status with the US under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).
The BBC's Karen Allen in Johannesburg said this was worth more than $170m (Â£117m) a year to South African farmers exporting citrus fruits, wine and nuts.
South Africa's Trade Minister Rob Davies said, when announcing that a deal had been struck, that 32,000 jobs depended on Agoa.
The US had been upset that South Africa was imposing what it saw as unfair restrictions on the import of American chickens over worries about avian flu and salmonella.
But Mr Davies said he had received assurances from the US authorities over the safety of their meat exports and added that rigorous safety checks would now be carried out.

The agreement gives US farmers access to the world's biggest rice consumer, with China importing about 5 million tonnes last year.
It follows trade talks between the two countries that resulted in little progress on other issues.
While China opened its rice market in 2001, a lack of protocols on pests and plant diseases effectively stopped imports taking place.
The organisation representing the US rice industry said the new agreement was the most complex of its kind, and set strict standards for US exporters to protect against the introduction of certain pests to China.
USA Rice added it would work with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to make sure the industry complied with the rules.
"We know China wants to send a team here to inspect mills and facilities certified to ship to China, and we are working with USDA to make that happen in the quickest and most efficient way," said Carl Brothers, chairman of the USA Rice International Trade Policy Committee.
US authorities and the industry have both hailed the agreement as a huge win.
"This market represents an exceptional opportunity today, with enormous potential for growth in the future," said US Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
According to OECD projections, the average person in China will consume 75kg of rice a year by 2024, compared with an average of 13kg in North America and 5kg in Europe.
USA Rice said China consumes the equivalent of the entire US annual output every two weeks.
Agriculture appears to be a bright spot in an otherwise thorny trade relationship between the two countries.
The announcement follows a round of contentious trade talks in Washington that appeared to end with little progress on tricky issues like China's steel exports or its $347bn (Â£268bn) trade surplus with the US.
The two sides didn't issue any joint statement following the talks, and cancelled scheduled press conferences.
The US has indicated that it might impose tariffs or quotas on Chinese steel, but since the talks wrapped up China has suggested that there was some progress on the issue.
Beijing's embassy in Washington said the two sides "had in-depth discussion on cutting excess steel production capacity in the world and agreed to active and effective measures to jointly address this global issue".


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Question: A boy who was born without ears has had a pair created from his ribs.

Nine-year-old Kieran Sorkin had the surgery at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.
About 100 children a year in the UK are born without one or both ears, a condition known as microtia.
Kieran was born deaf with small lobes where his ears should be. He can already hear, thanks to previous surgery to implant a hearing aid.
"I want people to stop asking me questions", said Kieran from Hertfordshire.  "I'd like just to look like my friends.
"I'd also like to be able to wear sunglasses and earphones."
Kieran's mum Louise Sorkin said: "He's a very sociable boy and has longed for this operation for years.
"I don't want children bullying him because he's different. I just want him to be accepted like everyone else."
On the morning of the operation, consultant plastic surgeon Neil Bulstrode stencils the shape of Louise Sorkin's ears.
He said: "When a patient has one ear we can match the new ear to that.  Fortunately Kieran's mum has very pretty ears so that should work well."
In theatre the surgical team remove cartilage from six of his ribs.  It is cut, shaped and sewn.
These frameworks are inserted in pockets in the skin and then using suction, they take on the shape of an ear on both sides.
Great Ormond Street Hospital does about 40 of these operations each year, although most of those are to create one missing ear.
The surgery is cosmetic, not to improve hearing.  But Mr Bulstrode said it brings huge psychological benefits.
"If you can change the confidence of a patient at this young age, you can change their whole trajectory in life.
"You see this when they come back.  It's a huge boost for them."
Advances in tissue engineering mean that this kind of reconstructive surgery could be done quite differently within a decade.
Scientists at the Institute of Child Health (ICH), part of University College London, are creating stem cells from patients' fat tissue.
The Institute, which is Great Ormond Street Hospital's research partner, induces the cells to make cartilage or bone.
Dr Patrizia Ferretti, leader of the ICH's Development and Regeneration Group, who is leading the study, said: "This approach would be far less invasive for a child than the current method of harvesting a child's rib cartilage."
Last year scientists in the US implanted a human-like ear, grown from cow and sheep cells, onto a rat.
But such research is still at its early stages, and for the foreseeable future children needing new ears will benefit from the same procedure used at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Three days after surgery, Kieran is given a mirror to look at his new ears.
His first reaction was "Wow!".  Kieran started to giggle, but the operation on his ribs means it hurts when he laughs.
Kieran will need a second operation in six months to make his ears stand out from the scalp more, but he's already delighted with the result.

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10 February 2016 Last updated at 17:14 GMT
She was hurt in an accident in Mexico in Central America.
Specialists at the local university made the her a new leg, with joints that copy it's natural moves.
Watch her learning how to walk again.


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Question: No matter how much you warn visitors to Cuba that they'll be offline during their stay, they often won't believe it until they actually arrive in Havana.

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On arrival, they find their iPads and smartphones suddenly only serve for taking photos which, to their dismay, can't be immediately posted to their Instagram or Facebook accounts.
Whether Snapchat-obsessed millennials or email-addicted workaholics, they stare at their phones in disbelief, waiting in vain for the familiar  "4G" symbol to appear, as the realisation dawns that an enforced digital detox is upon them.
Conversely, plenty of travellers to Cuba relish the chance to disconnect from the office emails and the constant barrage of WhatsApp alerts and tweets.
Yet what for the tourist is either a temporary inconvenience or a welcome offline breather is a very different reality for ordinary Cubans.
For years, it felt to many on the island like the internet was something happening elsewhere, to other people.
Recently though, it is easier, and cheaper, to get online in Cuba than it used to be.
There are now more than 240 public access wi-fi spots dotted around the country and the price for an hour of internet access, while still expensive by international standards, has dropped by more than half, to $1.50 (£1.20) for an hour.
It is now a common sight to see people sitting with their laptops or phones in parks and public plazas connecting with their families abroad via video-chat technology.
In the latest development, the state telecommunications company, Etecsa, has installed internet connections in around 2,000 homes in the capital's colonial district, Old Havana, as part of a two-month pilot scheme.
Among the lucky few is Jose Antonio Ruiz.
His modest apartment in one of the neighbourhood's newer buildings is part of the government's domestic online experiment. As a private business owner who rents rooms to tourists, Mr Ruiz has found the new "luxury" helped him in two main ways.
First, he says, he can advertise his apartment more easily on popular accommodation websites like Airbnb, and answer his clients' emails much more promptly than before.
Secondly, he can offer his guests a unique service giving him a competitive advantage over other guesthouses.
"The guests are really pleased when you tell them we have internet," Jose Antonio explains. "They relax as they know they can check their flights from here, read their emails or contact their families."
During the pilot, the connection is free but once it's over the government is expected to publish prices, so users can choose whether to keep the service or live without it.
It hasn't yet been confirmed but it is believed it will cost around $15 (£12) for 30 hours at the slowest speed of 128 kilobits per second, and up to $110 (£90) for the fastest - two megabits per second.
With the average wage in Cuba about $25 (£20) a month, those prices would be prohibitively expensive for many Cubans.
Jose Antonio's connection is not fast enough to stream video, for example. Still, it is an improvement on the dial-up connections that some state employees have at home and he says he'd pay to keep it as it's enough for what he needs.
One day, though, those needs could change, says Cuban youth blogger Ariel Montenegro.
"The digital transformation of a country is not just giving people the internet, but giving them services on the internet, Cuban services," he explains at a public access wi-fi point in the Vedado neighbourhood of Havana.
"Like banking or paying your bills or buying tickets for the movie theatre or applying to college. When those kinds of national services start to happen online then people will naturally become more impatient."
Such a move will take time, he thinks. However, much has already happened in a relatively short period.
"If you compare it with the rest of the world, of course we're still behind," admits Mr Montenegro. "But it's progress. When I started college, although we had the internet, it was really, really, really slow. You could barely do anything."
"In five years' time, I believe that at least every university will have a really fast internet connection as well as in libraries, in schools and more public wi-fi spots."
The Cuban government's position on the internet is twofold.
First it blames the US economic embargo for the lack of information technology in Cuba, saying that many of the major IT firms around the world fear running foul of Washington's strict rules on trading with Cuba.
Since the bilateral thaw of December 2014, that has been harder to argue, of course. Last year Google reached an agreement with Etecsa on storing its online content, such as YouTube video and Gmail, on servers inside Cuba to improve local access. Google executives are also keen to provide further internet-based solutions to challenges on the island.
However, there is also a lingering official distrust of unfettered internet access.
Whether stemming from an ill-advised USAid-run programme intended to undermine the Castro government via a text message-based form of "Cuban Twitter" called ZunZuneo or a broader suspicion of social media as a tool of dissent, the authorities have traditionally been wary of the net.
Following his meeting with Raul Castro last year, the then British Foreign Secretary, Phillip Hammond, told the BBC that the 85-year-old Cuban president "clearly understands the power of the digital economy to drive growth" but had also raised his concerns over "the negative aspects of the internet from online radicalisation to child sexual exploitation".
Mr Castro has a little under a year to go before he steps down from the presidency. His expected successor, Vice-President Miguel Angel Diaz Canel, is thought to be receptive to greater online access after he once publicly defended a group of young bloggers who had posted relatively critical material online.
As the home internet pilot scheme draws to an close, the Cuban government must next decide whether to shut it down or roll it out across the island.
Depending on the price, many thousands of potential users are ready to connect.

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The initiative - some would say publicity stunt - is the brainchild of a smartphone store based in the city.
It says that a significant number of mobile phone breakages happen because of "text walking" collisions.
There are now believed to be more mobile phones in the world than people.
Figures released by mobile operators and associated companies show that there are about 7.5 billion mobiles in the world, compared to a world population estimated to be 7.2 billion by the US Census Bureau.
"You probably walk through the streets while texting or sending Whatsapp messages to your friends and don't really pay attention to your surroundings - only to whatever is happening on your screen," a spokesman for Mlab, a smart phone laboratory based in Antwerp, was quoted by Yahoo News as saying.
"This causes collisions with poles or other pedestrians. You could, unknowingly, even be endangering your own life while you 'textwalk' when you cross the street without looking up."


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Question: Newport Gwent Dragons loosehead prop Luke Garrett has joined Scarlets on loan until December.

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The 21-year-old has signed to bolster the Scarlets' front row options with Rob Evans unavailable following wrist surgery.
Garrett made his Dragons debut against the Scarlets at Judgement Day in April 2015 and has made four appearances.
The prop also plays for Cross Keys in the Principality Premiership and is a Wales U20 international.

Jersey captain Phillips has made 48 appearances for the Championship side, scoring three tries.
He is the second Reds player to agree a move to Warriors for next season, following prop Simon Kerrod.
Meanwhile, Jersey have signed South African back-row Ayron Schramm, 21, on a two-year deal, while flanker James Doyle has been released.


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Question: New Zealand international Adam Milne is to miss his scheduled seven-match T20 Blast stint with Essex following an elbow injury.

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The 24-year-old fast bowler has been told that he must now require surgery.
Milne was signed in January to cover the second half of the T20 Blast qualifying group campaign, while Pakistan's Wahab Riaz was then brought in to cover the first seven matches.
But Riaz now joins up with Pakistan for the Test series with England.
Essex, second bottom of the southern group with just two points from five games, now hope to find a stand-in at short notice.
"We have a list of replacements that we are working hard to bring in," said Essex head coach Chris Silverwood. "Hopefully we can treat the fans to an exciting arrival in the coming weeks.
"It is disappointing for ourselves and Adam. We were excited by his arrival. But, unfortunately, he requires surgery on an elbow injury he picked up previously."
Although struggling in the T20, Essex remain top of Division Two in the County Championship and also head their One-Day Cup group after four games.
Adam Milne has not appeared since being ruled out with a hamstring injury after his Indian Premier League debut for Royal Challengers Bangalore in mid-April.
Playing in the same team as Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, he went for 43 runs from his four overs in a 45-run win over Sunrisers.
Milne is the third New Zealander forced to return home early from T20 duty, following in the wake of Worcestershire's Mitchell Santner (broken finger) and Birmingham Bears wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi, who has been selected for the Kiwis' forthcoming tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The 31-year-old replaces batsman Ross Taylor, who left Hove last month to join up with New Zealand for their Test series in Zimbabwe.
Wiese played four T20 Blast matches and one in the One-Day Cup during a short stint with Sussex earlier this season.
He is available again following a spell in the Caribbean Premier League.


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Question: A road to ease "crippling congestion" in part of Hampshire has been chosen by a regional development agency as a top priority for government funding.

The £34m Stubbington bypass heads a wish list drawn up by the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).
Also prioritized are a centre for warship maintenance in Portsmouth and a major housing development in Southampton.
LEPs are bidding for a share of £1.8bn under the Local Growth Fund.
Applications to the latest round of the government's job creation scheme must be made by 28 July.
Gosport Conservative MP Caroline Dinenage said the Stubbington bypass was "utterly essential for addressing the area's crippling congestion problems".
The road would cross nearly three miles of farmland, opening a route to the new Solent Enterprise Zone, a business park on the former Daedalus airfield near Fareham.
Sean Woodward, leader of Fareham Borough Council, said it would end rush hour gridlock in Stubbington village and reduce delays on the A32 between Fareham and Gosport.
Councillor Woodward, who also sits on the Solent LEP board, said the bypass was "a transformational scheme for South Hampshire".
The LEP is also bidding for £8m to continue a housing development in Southampton, including a 27-storey tower block.
In April, the agency said the next phase of the Centenary Quay project in Woolston had "viability concerns" and the developer, Crest Nicholson, could decide to "halt further investment".
The LEP also wants £1m to help upgrade facilities for warship maintenance at BAE systems at Portsmouth Naval Base, which cut more than 1,000 jobs when shipbuilding ended in 2014 .
Councillor Woodward said he "fully expected" the three LEP priorities to be awarded government funding in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement.

Campaigners say the proposed wet dock crossing could ease traffic problems, help create jobs and regenerate the waterfront.
Bridges crossing the River Orwell would also link the town with an island site.
Funding of £151m was confirmed in the Budget for both the Ipswich crossing and a third crossing in Lowestoft.
Ipswich MP Conservative Ben Gummer, who has campaigned for the scheme, said it was a "fantastic day".
"It is the single most important piece of new infrastructure that the town needs at the moment," he said.
"It will link the town better, release development land for jobs and prosperity in the centre of the town and help us to re-stitch the waterfront to the town centre."
A campaign for the £81m project was launched in October 2014 and a business case submitted to the Department for Transport in December by Suffolk County Council and the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership.
The council said the scheme could trigger local economic growth worth more than £8bn.
Council leader Colin Noble said he was "pleased" by the chancellor's announcement and the council would now proceed with developing the proposals.
"This is a massive piece of work and... will deliver jobs and much improved infrastructure," he added.
An initial study into the crossing was given £100,000 in the 2014 autumn statement, before £2m was released in last year's budget for a feasibility study.
It is hoped it could be built in 2020.


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Question: Rafael Nadal swept aside Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-4 6-1 to claim his 10th Barcelona Open title.

The Spaniard - who became the first man in the Open era to win the same event 10 times at last week's Monte Carlo Masters - did not drop a set this week.
Nadal, 30, has now won 10 consecutive matches and is aiming for his 10th French Open title next month.
Meanwhile, Britain's Aljaz Bedene had his 16-match winning run ended by Lucas Pouille in the Hungarian Open final.
The former world number one played all of his matches on the renamed Rafa Nadal court at the Real Tennis Club, and needed just 90 minutes to finish off Thiem.
World number nine Thiem beat world number one Andy Murray in the semi-finals and claimed the first break point of the contest.
However, Nadal broke serve in the 10th game and claimed the first set, before breaking twice in a row in the second to clinch the title on his favourite clay surface.
He was only broken twice in his 47 service games throughout the week.
"It was a close first set and a good quality of tennis - anything could have happened," said Nadal.
"But then I started playing at a very high level and Dominic probably started making a few more mistakes."
British number four Bedene was beaten 6-2 6-1 by French top seed Pouille, who secured his second ATP Tour title.
The world number 14 broke the Briton's first service game, and three further breaks in the second set secured a straightforward victory.
Bedene, 27, was ranked outside the top 100 at the beginning of March but has climbed to world number 68 and will move higher still on Monday.
His streak of 16 straight wins includes back-to-back titles on the second-tier ATP Challenger Tour earlier this month.
But his unbeaten run was finally ended as Pouille won in just 64 minutes.
"I'm a little disappointed because I had problems with my finger and felt uncomfortable hitting my shots," Bedene said.
"I wasn't close to the level I should be at to beat Lucas, but he was playing really well. It was like everything went in for him."
Elsewhere, in Morocco Open qualifying on the women's tour, British number four Tara Moore lost 6-1 6-2 to fiancee Conny Perrin.

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The 19-year-old German beat his 32-year-old Swiss opponent, the world number three, 4-6 6-2 6-1, setting up a tie with Nick Kyrgios or David Goffin.
Rafael Nadal also made it through, defeating France's Nicolas Mahut 6-4 7-6 (7-4). He plays American Jack Sock.
And Roger Federer beat Roberto Bautista Agut to continue his excellent form.
The Swiss, 35, secured a 16th win from 17 matches in 2017 with a 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) victory to set up a meeting with Tomas Berdych, who beat Adrian Mannarino of France 6-3 7-5.
Earlier on Tuesday, last year's defeated finalist Kei Nishikori of Japan booked his quarter-final spot with a 6-3 4-6 6-3 victory over Argentina's Federico Delbonis.
The 27-year-old, who lost to Novak Djokovic in last year's final, will face Fabio Fognini, who beat American Donald Young 6-0 6-4.


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Question: Co-operative Bank is cutting 200 jobs as it looks to continue its recovery.

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Staff have been told the posts will go by March and will mainly affect management and head office roles in Manchester and Stockport.
Deputy chief executive Liam Coleman said the cost reductions were "critical" as it continues its three-year plan to rebuild the business.
The bank almost collapsed in 2013 and it expects to continue to be loss-making until the end of next year.
Mr Coleman said: "These cost reductions are critical to progressing our turnaround and delivering a cost base which supports a sustainable core bank."
He said it would continue to consult colleagues and trade unions on the proposals over the coming weeks.
"We have made progress in turning the bank around since 2013, but have always been clear that the bank's recovery is a difficult journey."
He said the business would not make a profit this year or next year while it continues its "turnaround plan in a challenging economic environment".
Rob MacGregor, national officer at trade union Unite, said: "The speed and breadth of these cuts will hit the Co-operative Bank's much cherished customer service and with it the bank's unique selling point.
"Compulsory redundancies are anathema to all trade unions, but the timing of this exercise just before Christmas is a real blow to our members."
He said the union would be supporting members and pressing the bank to reconsider the cuts where possible.
The bank was owned by the Co-operative Group until 2013, when a Â£1.5bn hole was discovered in its finances.
The group had to go to outside investors to support the Co-op Bank, which is now 80% owned by US hedge funds, with the remainder held by the Co-op Group.

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CYBG, which demerged from former owner National Australia Bank in February, posted pre-tax profits of £77m for the 12 months to 30 September.
This compared with a loss of £285m the previous year.
On an underlying basis, pre-tax profits for the Glasgow-based group rose by 39% to £221m.
CYBG described it as a "landmark year" for the bank.
Analysis by Douglas Fraser, BBC Scotland business and economy editor
The first full-year results from the newly-independent CYBG are mercifully short on the 'noise' that has been afflicting its larger rivals, as they set aside colossal amounts for legacy costs and litigation.
The Clydesdale left that burden behind in Melbourne, before being floated by National Australia Bank. So it should have more management headspace to look ahead and act nimbly, to establish itself as a significant challenger to the dominant players.
The talks on buying the Williams & Glyn division of RBS - carved out and put on the market to meet a European Commission requirement - remain shrouded in legal secrecy.
If it gets to a deal, that could be a game-changer. There's a question of price, of course, but also the conditions CYBG can place on RBS for continuing IT glitches and costs (already eye-watering) and whether the Glasgow-based bank can carve out only the bits it wants.
The only clear public message about it is that any deal will have to meet strict strategic criteria, as would other acquisitions. "We're very calm and totally strategic," says the chief executive. "We're not into anything ad hoc."
CYBG already has a footprint in Scotland and Yorkshire. There are opportunities to push into other parts of England, with new flagship branches planned for Manchester and Birmingham.
Chief executive David Duffy reels off impressive statistics on improved customer satisfaction and employee engagement. A lot is pinned on the 'B' app, launched in May, which uses artificial intelligence to offer reactive advice on the customer's spending profile. We're told it has got off to a very strong start with customer satisfaction.
It's a modest start though, having 30,000 users so far. Such technology is expensive. A ratio of costs to income of 74% is expensive by industry standards.
The share price since February tells us that CYBG has got off to a good start. To make sense of its ambitions, it also has to build scale.
CYBG grew its mortgage lending by 6.5% over the year. CYBG also saw growth in loans to small businesses for the first time in four years, with more than £2.2bn of new loans and facilities made available.
The group said it had seen a "limited" impact on its business from the Brexit vote.
But it added that prolonged lower interest rates - following the cut to 0.25% in August - would put pressure on its interest margins, which would be only partially offset by the Bank of England's low-cost funding scheme for lenders.
The bank reported it had not increased cash set aside for payment protection insurance (PPI) compensation, despite the recent move to put back the deadline for claims by a year.
Last month the group confirmed it had made an offer to buy Royal Bank of Scotland's 300-strong Williams & Glyn branch business, after Santander pulled out of talks.
However, CYBG is also cutting jobs and shutting branches as part of a drive to cut costs by an extra £100m.
It said in September that it would trim its branch network further, from 248 to less than 200 over the next three years.
Alongside the cost savings, it is investing more than £350m over the next two years on improving its online banking offering and boosting technology platforms.
CYBG chairman Jim Pettigrew said it had been a "landmark year" in the long history of the bank.
He added: "Our ambition is straightforward: to become the credible alternative to the big UK banks."
Shares in CYBG were down by about 4% in early trading, although the stock has risen by nearly two-thirds since its demerger in February.


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Question: More than half of UK consumers have changed their shopping habits as a result of the horsemeat scandal, a consumer group survey suggests.

The survey by Which? found that 60% of 2,000 adults questioned online had changed how they shop, with many now buying less processed meat.
It also suggested that public trust in the food industry had declined.
Horsemeat has been found in a number of processed beef products across Europe, raising questions about the food chain.
"The horsemeat scandal exposed the need for urgent changes to the way food fraud is detected and standards are enforced," said Which? executive director Richard Lloyd.
Some 68% of those surveyed do not think the government has been giving enough attention to enforcing labelling laws, with half of consumers not confident ingredient information is accurate.
"These serious failings must be put right if consumers are to feel fully confident in the food they are buying once more," Mr Lloyd said.
The scandal began in January when Irish food inspectors announced that they had found horsemeat in frozen beef burgers made by firms in Ireland and the UK, and sold by a number of UK supermarket chains, including Tesco, Iceland, Aldi and Lidl.
Since then beef products containing horsemeat have been found in a number of European countries, including France, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliamentary select committee chairmen and women on Tuesday that the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the government and retailers all had lessons to learn.

Some 13m consumers will be shopping for gifts and groceries, said the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).
The CRR predicts in-store sales will reach £4.7bn over the five days before Christmas - a 21% increase on 2013.
Department stores can expect to double their takings this weekend, according to a payments processing company.
Commercial manager for John Lewis' Oxford Street branch, Clare Scantlebury said: "The key difference here is the later fall of Christmas so we know that strength in trade will continue right through to Christmas Eve."
Consumer analyst Sue Hayward said: "People are starting to get a little more money in their pockets. We are seeing things like petrol and food prices slightly down.
"It is important for the retailers that they entice people into spending this money rather than obviously paying off their mortgage which may be the sensible option."
UK retail sales rose at their fastest annual rate in more than 10 years in November, thanks to the effects of Black Friday, official figures show.
Sales rose 6.4% compared with November last year, the highest annual increase since May 2004, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
However the 6.4% rise is compared with a period in 2013 that did not include Black Friday trading which fell in December that year.
Britain's "Black Friday" shopping surge in late November saw retail sales grow at their fastest pace for nearly 27 years, figures from the bosses' group the CBI show.
The survey found 71% of firms reported sales volumes up on a year ago while 9% said they were down, giving a balance of 61% - the highest since January 1988.
Barry Williams, CBI distributive trades survey chairman, said: "Increasing disposable income from real wages growth, and falling fuel prices are giving retailers reasons for optimism but we'll need to see in the New Year whether the upbeat mood takes hold."
Analysis
Joe Lynam, BBC News business correspondent
Included in this £1.2bn estimate from the CRR for "Panic Saturday" spending will be quite a bit of food and drink bought to sustain consumers over the holiday period.
But even excluding grocery spending, this festive season could break all records for Christmas shopping.
For the first time since 2008 we feel economically more secure. Record numbers are in work and unemployment is down to 6%.
On top of that, petrol and energy costs are falling thanks to a plummeting oil price and our supermarket bills seem to be shrinking too thanks to a price war between the grocers.
All in all, many of us may be feeling wealthier and we're set to reflect that feeling in what - and how much - we spend this month.
Alongside Christmas stockings, credit card bills might also be bulging soon.
"Panic Saturday" will be good for department stories, with outlets in the North of England predicted to benefit the most, according to data released by payment processing company Worldpay.
"Many of these 11th-hour shoppers will be breaking into a cold sweat at the thought of heading to the High Street on the busiest shopping day of the year and praying for someone to take the pain away," said the company's UK managing director, Dave Hobday.
"Panic Saturday" follows on from the busy online shopping day of Cyber Monday, and the large discounts offered on Black Friday - a shopping phenomenon which originated in the US.
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Question: A man who tipped boiling custard over his former partner's head during seven-years of abuse has been ordered to carry out unpaid work.

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Edward Barr, 45, began terrorising Ann Begg when she became pregnant.
The attacks happened at addresses across Ayrshire, including in Cumnock and Auchinleck, between May 1993 and May 2000.
Lord Clark ordered Barr to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work as part of a 12-month community payback order.
Barr, from Cumnock in Ayrshire, appeared at the High Court in Glasgow, having earlier pleaded guilty to assaulting Ms Begg, 51,
However, before his guilty plea, Ms Begg had to give evidence against him at a trial in Livingston.
She had told the court: "It was fine at first, but I was not able to give him the full attention he was getting before, so he did not like that.
"I noticed things were not the same. There was a lot more arguments leading up to the violence that happened throughout that period."
She recalled being "pummelled" by Barr while pregnant after rowing with him for going on a day out with a  friend rather than her.
She said: "I was dragged from the living room out to the hallway of the flat by the hair. All I can remember is fists coming at me."
Barr also went on to pour "a plate of boiling hot custard" over her as she cooked a meal.
Miss Begg eventually ended up staying in women's refuges.
The pair split up in 2000 when Barr started seeing someone else.
Barr has already spent the equivalent of eight months on remand.
He was earlier cleared of 10 further charges of domestic violence after a key witness failed to turn up to give evidence.

Nathan Fisher, 24, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to two dogs at Llandudno Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
Magistrates said they were "appalled" and ordered the second dog be confiscated.
Fisher, of Rhyl - who was given a 12-week suspended jail sentence - said he was "truly sorry" for his actions.
The maintenance worker was also ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work with nine months' alcohol treatment.


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Question: The traditional motor industry would be foolish to ignore moves by Google and Apple into car technology, said Fiat-Chrysler boss Sergio Marchionne.

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The chief executive of one of the world's biggest carmakers said the two US companies were "incredibly serious" about their automotive ambitions.
He said their move into driverless technology and electric vehicles could be "disruptive" for manufacturers.
Mr Marchionne commented on the tech giants' plans at the Geneva Motor Show.
He said it is always a good thing when someone new wants to shake up the industry,  "but when you're the guy whose life is being disrupted, it's not necessarily a good feeling," he added.
Apple has several hundred people working on a car project, called Titan. The company's vast resources made it a potential tough competitor, although Mr Marchionne said he'd like to talk Apple about working on potential projects.
However, he said that neither Google nor Apple should "underestimate carmakers' ability to respond and adapt" to new competitive challenges.
Among Fiat-Chrysler's brands are Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Maserati, and Mr Marchionne says these companies are key to driving future profits.
Those brands arguably have greater immunity to what he calls the "disruptive interlopers" from Apple and Google, he said. "Why would you buy a Ferrari and not want to drive it?"
Meanwhile, the Fiat chief said the European car industry recovery continues to gain hold. He had been among the most pessimistic of motor industry chiefs about European sales, speaking of a "bloodbath" and "hell".
But he said: "The market is not as tough as it used to be. We're not fighting tooth and nail for the last dollar." The fall in the value of the euro was helping exports, and stimulus action by the European Central Bank was working, he said.
But he warned that conflict over the Russian-Ukraine situation risked setting back recovery. The economic consequences may yet "spill over into western Europe", he warned.

Great Wall confirmed it had researched the US-Italian carmaker but made no substantial progress towards a deal.
In a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange late on Tuesday, it said there was a "great deal of uncertainty" over any potential bid.
On Monday the carmaker expressed interest in buying some or all of Fiat.
But in its latest statement Great Wall, China's largest SUV maker, appeared to shift gears.
The company said it had not "established contact with the CEO of Fiat Chrysler", nor signed any documents with the firm.
Shares in Great Wall fell 2% in Shanghai after the announcement, before recovering slightly.
Fiat Chrysler, the world's seventh largest carmaker and one of the big three Detroit auto firms, said on Monday it had not received an approach from Great Wall.
Fiat Chrysler's chief executive Sergio Marchionne is seeking a partner or buyer to help it manage rising costs, emissions regulations and the development of electric and self-driving cars.
Great Wall sold just over a million vehicles last year, mostly in China, which is now the world's largest car market.