London 2012 Olympics: Coe thrilled by the masses

 
11 August 2012

London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe admitted that he was shocked by the capacity crowd on the first morning of athletics competition at the Olympic Stadium.

Coe was well aware of the high demand for tickets from the number of applications but shared the sense of surprise enjoyed by the athletes when 80,000 spectators filled the stadium on a Friday morning.

"I had been through the ticketing process, I could tell you there were a lot of people coming," Coe told an IAAF press conference ahead of tonight's last evening of action.

"I knew from the outset we are a track and field nation and people did not want to sit that dance out.

"But we were all quite shocked when we saw them in there in those numbers. That was a glorious scene for anyone that wants to see our sport shown to best effect."

Asked to name his favourite moments of the Games, Coe put David Rudisha's gold medal and world record in the 800 metres top of the list, followed by fellow Sheffield athlete Jessica Ennis' heptathlon victory.

He added: "Third is the extraordinary atmosphere and seeing everyone in that stadium and fourth is the extraordinary generosity of the crowds, fans and volunteers.

"If people are happy then I'm happy and they seem to be happy coming in and out of the venues. Our challenge is to build on that platform. We have 2017 where we want to deliver a World Championships to rank among the best we have seen."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in