Press release

London, Great Britain, August 11, 2011 – Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), braved the elements to take in the action at Horse Guard’s Parade and said he was delighted by what he had seen at the Visa FIVB Beach Volleyball International.

The double Olympic 1,500 metre champion was in the stands to watch fellow Olympic gold medallist Natalie Cook and her partner Tamsin Hinchley record their third win in three matches to qualify unbeaten for the elimination rounds.

“This venue is the big ticket venue and we have always known from the outset that beach volleyball in Horse Guard’s Parade, with Buckingham Palace at one end of The Mall and Downing Street at the other, was always likely to be a huge attraction,” Lord Coe said.

“I think it is fantastic, I think it is great. I have had debriefs every night from the teams who have said that the atmosphere has been fantastic and that the organisation has held together. It is a test event so it gives us the chance to look back on what we have done and deliver at a much, much bigger scale this time next year,” he said.

For the London 2012 Olympic Games the stadium will grow from its current 1,500 capacity to a venue capable of holding 15,000 spectators. The competition will also double in size, with 24 teams competing in both men’s and women’s competitions.

“We need to remember that that stadium is only the tenth of the size of what we are going to have out there next year and of course the other elements that grow proportionally with it,” Coe said.

“(There will be) ten times the noise and 10 times the drama. It is an Olympic Games and there are medals at stake. It doesn’t get much better.”

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One crucial element of the test event is the legacy program that LOCOG committed to when presenting its bid to the International Olympic Committee in Singapore in 2005.

The sand that is being used in Horse Guard’s Parade will be taken from its central London location and given to four sites in the British capital where public beach volleyball courts are being built.

“Legacy was at the heart of everything we committed to in Singapore, even being able to deploy the sand to training venues in London,” Coe said.

“It is fantastic. We always said where possible we wanted to recycle, reuse and let communities benefit from the test event and ultimately the competitions that we put on.”