Olympic holiday plans ruined after half did not get tickets

Thousands of families looking forward to an Olympic holiday next year had their plans dashed as more than half of people who applied for London 2012 Olympic Games tickets did not receive any in the ballot.

According to the BBC, 1.8 million people applied for the 6.6 million public tickets available - but about 55% of people missed out.

London 2012 said those who missed out will have priority in the second ballot, but there are no tickets left for the opening and closing ceremonies, or the athletics finals.

A London 2012 spokesman said: 'Those who were unsuccessful in the initial process will have priority in the next round of sales which start later this month and they will be contacted soon to inform them about the next steps.

'There are still plenty of tickets available to see great Olympic sport across all price points.'

Chris Townsend, London 2012's director responsible for tickets, said last week: 'The ballot was run on a session basis, a separate ballot was run for each price point that was oversubscribed in the session.

'For example, for the 100m final, five separate ballots were run, one for each price point.'

BBC London's Olympics correspondent Adrian Warner said the big events had sold out but added that cheaper events like BMX and archery had also all gone.

He explained: 'Even though people will be entered into a second ballot, the cheaper tickets have gone.

'So, for example, if you do want to watch track and field it will be the preliminaries and it will cost between £40, which is double the cheapest available, and £150.'

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