LONDON 2012

London 2012 has started to put thousands of tickets back on sale for the Olympics in an emergency bid to fill the empty seats at venues across the Games.

In the lead-up to the Olympics, London 2012 claimed there would be no empty seats at the venues as they were overwhelmed with ticket requests but the sight of whole sections of gaps in the stands has angered the thousands of fans who missed out on tickets.

The non-attendance of accredited "Games Family" – including sports officials and media – has largely been blamed for the empty seats but London 2012 have said that international federations  have started giving tickets back to sell to the public.

"We talked to the international federations yesterday," said the London 2012 director of communications and public affairs Jackie Brock-Doyle at a press conference here.

"We were able to put back into the pot for sale around 3,000 tickets last night; they have all been sold.

"That includes about 600 for the gymnastics event today and we are going to do that on a day to day basis.

"The other side of it is obviously in basketball, when the Dream Team [the USA basketball team] played yesterday, there wasn't a spare seat in the house.

"So we are doing this session by session, talking to the accredited groups including broadcast media, and asking whether we can release for the different sessions tickets back into the public pot.

"Where we can, we are going to release those the night before and put them up for sale.

"The accredited seating for these Games is down 15 per cent on previous Games, so there already has been a reduction in accredited seating for London 2012."


Brock-Doyle also defended criticism that London 2012 should have addressed the issue at an earlier stage.

"I think we are trying everything we can to make sure those accredited seats are filled where we can," she said.

"There are operational issues that make it difficult to fill some of those seats which is why we are putting and making them available to the troops and to the teachers and children.

"We had a plan in place for the teachers and the children over a year ago that we have been deploying.

"There are 150 children and teachers who are on the Park today.

"That is only for the Park.

"We will increase that to about 300 or 400 tomorrow and we will keep going on that.

"We really are doing the best we can but it is not an exact science, as we saw with swimming last night and with basketball and the American match yesterday.

"We are working within the numbers that each of the accredited areas look at.

"We have done a lot already.

"At a lot of venues, we have taken, for preliminary rounds, away all of the non-tabled seats and sold those out.

"So we have done an awful lot already in the lead up."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) director of communications Mark Adams said the organisation is looking to help.

"From the IOC's point of view we are doing a number of things," he said.

"From that you will understand that clearly we are giving up those seats in those accredited areas on a case-by-case basis.

"At the USA basketball game there were 200 or 300 people who could not get into the accredited area because it was completely packed.

"So it is horses for courses."

By Tom Degun at the Main Press Centre on the Olympic Park in London

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

Lithuanian teenager Ruta Meilutyte has caused one of the biggest shocks of London 2012 so far after the unheralded athlete stunned a world-class field in the women's 100 metres breaststroke final to claim her country's first ever Olympic swimming medal.

The victory makes Meilutyte (pictured top, in green cap) the youngest ever winner of the discipline at 15 years 133 days old as well as the youngest Olympic champion in any swimming event since American Beth Botsford triumphed in the 100m backstroke at Atlanta 1996 aged 15 years 62 days.

Meilutyte, originally from Kaunas but who now lives in England and attends the same Plymouth school as British diver Tom Daley, led from the start and miraculously held on to claim gold ahead of American superstar and reigning world champion Rebecca Soni by the narrowest of margins.

The teenager finished in a national record of 1min 05.47sec while Soni, the overwhelming favourite going into the race, finished just 0:08sec behind in 1:05.55 to claim silver, the same colour medal she won in the event in Beijing four years ago.

Japan's Satomi Suzuki earned bronze in 1:06.46 while Australia's defending Olympic champion, Leisel Jones, finished fifth.

But the race undoubtedly belonged to Meilutyte, who was completely overcome with emotion following the unlikely win on the biggest stage in sport.

"I can't believe it," she said through tears.

"It's too much for me.

"I really can't say anything.

"It was hard and difficult.

"At the moment I can't speak too much but it means a lot to me and I'm so proud."

Meilutyte's tears of joy continued on the podium in what marks a remarkable journey for the teenager, who only turned 15 in March.

She moved to Britain three years ago with her father and is trained by English coach Jon Rudd.

Rudd knew he had a major talent on his hands when he first saw Meilutyte but admitted the result was a major shock.

"We didn't realistically know what she would do but the Olympics are a funny place," he said.

"She is a talented and vigilant worker but this is obviously unexpected."

Meilutyte proved she was not at the Games just to make up the numbers by setting a European record in the heats which proved two seconds faster than her personal best.

She swam even quicker in the semi-finals yesterday to qualify fastest for the final and managed to hold her nerve even through a bizarre fault at the start when the bleep went off before the swimmers were told to take their marks.

The long delay should perhaps have favoured more experienced competitors but Meilutyte kept her composure to astonish both herself and the crowd to win.

Soni sportingly led the tributes to the Lithuanian.

"You have to give her credit because what she has done is phenomenal," said the American.

"I'm a little disappointed not to win gold but to do what she did at her age is pretty special."

Meilutyte could actually add to her medal tally at the Olympics as she is also competing in the women's 50m and 100m freestyle events and will now be taken seriously by her competitors following the shock gold.

It marked Lithuania's first gold medal of London 2012 and only its fifth ever.

The first was won in the men's discus by Romas Ubartas, who claimed victory at Barcelona 1992, four years after winning a silver medal for the Soviet Union at Seoul in 1988.

The second also came in the men's discus, at Sydney 2000 courtesy of Virgilijus Alekna, while at the same Games, Daina Gudzinevičiūtė took victory in the women's trap shooting.

Alekna again won the men's discus at Athens 2004 while Meilutyte becomes Lithuania's first swimming gold medallist.

By Tom Degun at the Aquatics Centre on the Olympic Park in London

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

By Jacquelin Magnay, Olympics Editor

Source: www.dailytelegraph.co.uk

A fresh ticketing row has enveloped London 2012 Olympic organisers as angry parents of athletes are turned away at Games venues.

Parents and friends of Swedish and Singaporean swimmers as well as a host of other countries have been refused access into the aquatics centre over the past two nights, missing seeing their loved ones compete, while other parents have had hours of angst trying to sort tickets at the last minute.

Adding to their woes were the pictures of empty seats in prime positions.

The issue hasn't been confined to the aquatics centre. Parents have missed tennis matches at Wimbledon and only been able to get into Eton Dorney for the rowing and Excel for the boxing after fraught negotiations.

Gunilla Lindberg, a senior International Olympic Committee member intimately familiar with the London preparations as she was also on the London Coordination Commission, said the issue was chaotic and distracting for many athletes.

''It is so confusing for everyone. Parents keep calling the athletes, no one knows where the tickets are and it is not very good preparation for the athletes to be so stressed about it,'' she said.

The parents and friends ticket programme entitles every athlete to buy two tickets for each session in which they compete. But the Ticketmaster ticketing system used by Locog to administer the programme has not been able to update in time for each final - detaling which athletes are eligible to puchase the tickets.

Then the distribution of the tickets has, in the words of one team chef de mission become '' a complete nightmare''.

Locog has changed the system, telling the foreign teams that tickets for the programme could be picked up at venues, but the officials at the venue have not been informed and have refused the parents admission.

''This is chaos, no one knows about the system,'' said Lindberg. ''But I don't know how it is going to be sorted as it is so complex and this is the first games this programme has been used.''

The International Olympic Committee has been so concerned about the issue it has been repeatedly raised at the early morning joint briefing with Locog and government.

This morning at the chefs de mission meeting at the Olympic Village it was a major topic of debate.

The IOC told the Telegraph: ''This is the first time that this particular service has been offered to athletes and it comes on top of all the other ways that athletes can see the Games. It has been working for a number of months for those that pre-qualified and clearly, with such a new system, especially during the Games, when the turnaround time may only be a matter of hours, there may be challenges but LOCOG is working to fine tune the services with the NOCs and ATRs.''

Earlier Tessa Jowell called on Lord Coe to use his "muscle" to resolve the empty seat issue at the Olympics today.

Tessa Jowell, the shadow Olympics minister, has called on Games organiser Lord Coe to ensure sports fans are given tickets for empty venue seats 'today'.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today Programme, Mrs Jowell said: “The IOC have got to be part of the solution to this particular problem, these accredited seats remaining empty.

"However, we can’t wait for that medium-term resolution. We’ve got to get people into those seats today tomorrow and the next day and I think the measures Seb Coe announced yesterday go quite a long way in relation to that, together with the recycling of tickets for people who are already in the park.

"This is very important for the confidence of the British public and what I’m struck by is that the sponsors certainly don’t seem to be the bad guys in this at.

"They have really responded to public expectation that these are not fat cat games but two of our major companies – the majority of tickets have gone to staff or who are active in their local community, or they’ve gone to people beyond the board level of the sponsors and I’m sure that is a more general theme.

"We need the federations to be as responsive as many of the sponsors.”

She added that Lord Coe could exercise “muscle” in facing up to the federations not using their tickets.

“He’s done a fabulous job in leading these Olympic Games, being the face of the Olympic Games. He’s highly respected in every part and now is the time when he can exercise maximum muscle in saying to these federations: ‘Look your reputation is on the line here and it’s not fair to the British many of whom have not been able to get to the Games.”

Mrs Jowell said that the London 2012 Games would be among the most "democratic" ever to take place, with the public truly taking part in events such as the mass bell ring which was held on the morning of the Opening Ceremony.

By Andrew Warshaw at the Main Press Centre on the Olympic Park in London

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

In the first broadcasting controversy of London 2012, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) pledged today that the problems which beset yesterday's men's cycle road race were "teething troubles" which would not be repeated.

The BBC and other broadcasters registered concerns with the IOC about a lack of key timing data that left millions of viewers baffled and unable to follow the race properly.

The IOC's broadcasting arm, Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), provides TV pictures to networks around the world.

But for large periods of time yesterday there was no information about the gaps between the various teams with OBS unable to supply crucial information to commentators.

With around one million people lining the roads for the race networks became jammed by too much tweeting, preventing organisers from receiving crucial timing and positional updates.

As a result, said IOC spokesman Mark Adams, crucial GPS data could not be received.

He said that OBS was now attempting to disperse its communications onto other networks so that information could be received.

"From my understanding one network was oversubscribed and OBS are trying to spread the load to other providers," said Adams.

"We don't want to stop people engaging in social media and sending updates, but perhaps they might consider only sending urgent updates.

"Of course, if you want to send something, we are not going to say 'Don't, you can't do it', and we would certainly never prevent people.

"It's just [a case of] if it's not an urgent, urgent one, please take it easy."

Adams said talks had taken place late last night and early this morning in attempt to solve the issue.

"We are taking action on a number of things," he said.

"It's a network issue, teething troubles, and it is that which we are working on."

St. Kitts & Nevis sprinter Tameka Williams has been sent home from the London Olympics by her team for a potential drug violation.

Williams had been using a substance which was "clearly oyesteron Sunday.

Knight said Williams had not tested positive, but the team acted after consulting with the World Anti-Doping Agency "to find out about the product."

"In discussions with our team management, she volunteered to them that she had been using a particular substance which, when we did our own investigations, we considered to be outside the accepted medical code," Knight said.

Williams told team officials about using the substance — which the team has not disclosed — in a pre-Olympics training camp.

"It was a matter of the management of the team doing their due diligence," Knight said.

The 22-year-old Williams had qualified for the 100 and 200 metres, and gave samples for anti-doping tests at national Olympic trials last month.

"It was not based on any positive drug test. She turned up a clean test," Knight said.

Williams marched at the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday as the only woman in a seven-member team from the Caribbean islands, who are all track sprinters. The best known is five-time Olympian Kim Collins.

Knight said St Kitts team officials sought expert advice in London before acting.

"We wanted to consult with the anti-doping fraternity," he said. "We are a very tiny country with limited knowledge of these things."

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India have complained to London 2012 over an apparent security lapse during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics last night when an unidentified woman walked alongside flag-bearer Sushil Kumar during the athletes' parade.

The young woman, dressed in a red shirt and blue trousers, marched next to the weightlifter, a bronze medallist at Beijing four years ago, despite having no visible accreditation.

India's Chef de Mission P K Muralidharan Raja has now complained to London 2012 about the incident which has become the main talking point in India about the much-praised Opening Ceremony.

"She had no business to walk in with the Indian contingent and we are taking up the issue with the organisers," he said.

"We don't know who she is and why she was allowed to walk in.

"It is a shame that she was with the athletes in the march past.

"We were initially told that she would accompany the contingent till the track but she went on to take the entire lap.

"There was another man also but he stayed back and did not enter the Stadium.

"We have taken strong exception to this.

"The march past is for the athletes and officials attached to the contingent.

"We are totally taken by surprise how a person could just intrude into the track."

A total of 40 Indian athletes and 11 officials dressed in traditional blazers and Rajasthani yellow turbans or yellow sarees marched in the Opening Ceremony, earning one of the biggest cheers of the evening.

"The Indian contingent was shown for hardly ten seconds in the television coverage and the entire focus sadly was on this lady, instead of the athletes," said Raja.

It is a major issue for Raja to take over having only been promoted to the role of Chef de Mission on the eve of the Opening Ceremony after Ajitpal Singh, the original choice, was unable to travel here due to a serious back problem.

By Duncan Mackay at the Main Press Centre in the Olympic Park in London

Source: www.insidethegames.biz

Olympic 100-metre champion Usain Bolt will lose his crown to compatriot Yohan Blake unless he quickly fixes technical problems with his race, former world record holder Maurice Greene told Reuters yesterday.

The American said Bolt's vulnerability in the first 60 metres, already exposed this year by the younger Jamaican, gave his rivals the scent of gold that was absent in Beijing four years ago.

"If Usain was running like he was in Beijing, he would win hands down," said the 2000 Olympic gold medallist. "But he is not running like that."

Body position out of the starting blocks and in the first 60 metres are hurting the world's most famous sprinter, Greene said.

"Those problems...bring everybody closer to him, which makes him susceptible to losing," said Greene, who is serving as a television analyst at the Games.

"Usain is the more talented, but Blake has a better technical race," added Greene, who correctly predicted Blake would win last year's 100m world championship in which Bolt false-started.

Blake, the year's fastest at both 100 and 200, also prevailed in last month's Jamaican Olympic trials in which Bolt was slowed by hamstring problems.

Although there has been much speculation about Bolt's fitness, Greene said he did not believe he is currently injured.

"All of his problems are technical," Greene said.

Bolt looked sluggish in both Jamaican races, prompting many to predict the lanky sprinter would fail in his bid for a repeat in the 100.

He badly wants both golds to secure his place as a great in the sport he dominates. No man has ever claimed repeat Olympic titles in both.

Bolt will win the 200 hands down, Greene said, but there will be no runaway victory by anyone in the 100.

"Not unless the freak comes out in Usain Bolt," said Greene when asked if anyone could duplicate the Jamaican's two-tenths of a second victory in Beijing.

"He is only one that can do that. He might be capable of doing it again. I just don't see from the races I have seen that he is in that type of shape."

Beyond Bolt and Blake, the race for the bronze is wide open, Greene said.

Americans Justin Gatlin and Tyson Gay, Jamaican former world record holder Asafa Powell and Trinidad and Tobago's Keston Bledman all should be in the mix for the final medal.

Gay, the world's second fastest man, has the speed to run with the best when healthy, but Greene said he was concerned about his hesitancy to go all out at the start because of hip surgery that kept him off the track for nearly a year.

Gatlin's tendency to rush his transition could cost the 2004 Olympic champion who served a four-year doping ban between 2006-10, Greene said.

Powell has the talent, but his poor record in major championships makes him suspect.

"If he is relaxed, he might beat everybody," Greene said.

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