OLYMPIC GAMES:DESPITE RENEWED complaints over their unwieldy ticketingsystem, London 2012 organisers have sold tens of thousands more tickets to the Games and claimed vindication over their decision to charge for sections of the road cycling races.

Meanwhile, Paralympics officials expressed confidence the London Games could become the first to sell out in the event’s 52-year history, following another round of strong ticket sales.

Among the tickets that went on sale yesterday were 25,000 for the climbing section of the cycling road race at Box Hill and the cycling time trial at Hampton Court.

Cycling fans are used to watching their heroes for nothing, but Locog (the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) said the men’s events had sold out in a single day.

Initial demand meant the much-criticised Ticketmaster system again slowed to a crawl. “The sheer volume of demand meant that we managed transactions slowly in the first 20 minutes. However, transactions are now flowing through in their thousands,” said a spokeswoman.

Timed tickets to ascend the Orbit sculpture in the Olympic Park also went on sale for the first time yesterday. In all, around 450,000 tickets to the Games remain – plus 1.3 million football tickets that are expected to prove difficult to shift.

More than 1.2 million of the 2.2 million tickets on offer for the 2012 Paralympics, which run from August 29th to September 9th, have already been sold. Another 125,000 were sold last week, the highest total in a single seven-day period to date.

Guardian Service