The School Games finals are due to take place from May 6 until 9, with the first three days of competition taking place at the giant ExCeL Arena in London's Docklands.

However, the final day of competition on May 9 will see the action move to the Olympic Park in Stratford where the young athletes will get to compete at the Olympic Stadium, the Aquatics Centre and the Velodrome.

The tickets are free of charge but have only been made available to family members of the athletes and schools groups who have signed up to participate in the School Games.

So far Youth Sport Trust have given out exactly 28,081 tickets, with just 2,499 remaining, they claim.

There are 2,498 tickets left for the morning session of swimming at the Aquatics Centre with the afternoon session completely gone, while there is just one ticket left for cycling at the Velodrome with the morning session sold out.


All 14,900 tickets for both sessions of the athletics have been given ut and Will Roberts, the senior development manager at the Youth Sport Trust, admitted that it was a huge boost for the event, which is an evolved version of the UK School Games.

"It absolutely fantastic that there has been so much interest in the event but given that the 2012 School Games finals will take place in the Olympic Park itself, it is no major surprise," Roberts told insidethegames here at the Youth Sport Trust National Conference.

"These young athletes are going to get to compete in the exact spot where Olympians like Usain Bolt will compete and presumably win the Olympic gold medal.

"So this is a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the very best young sportspeople to have an unforgettable experience ahead of London 2012.

"For the young officials and volunteers it will also be a fantastic and memorable experience."

The 2012 School Games finals will be the last event to be held on the Olympic Park before the Olympic Opening Ceremony on July 27 and around 2,000 hotel rooms near ExCeL will be used as an Athletes Village.

Approximately 700 coaches, support staff and volunteers will give round-the-clock support and advice, collectively committing more than 22,000 hours of their time.

The event will be delivered by the Youth Sport Trust (YST), alongside London 2012 and Fast Track after they won a bid process overseen by Sport England.

They have been allocated £4 million ($6 million/€4.6 million) of National Lottery money and £2 million ($3 million/€2.3 million) of Government funding for the finals event.

The School Games finals will be the fourth part of the new competition as there are three provisional levels of competition – class versus class, school versus school and then county or city wide sports festivals – leading up to the showcase final on the Olympic Park.

Over 12,000 schools have already registered for the competition with competitions to be held in twelve current and future Olympic and Paralympic sports of fencing, rugby sevens, gymnastics, hockey, badminton, athletics, cycling, judo, swimming, table tennis, volleyball and wheelchair basketball.

The School Games finals will continue annually after 2012 and the ambition is for the finals to be held in the Olympic Park at regular intervals.

More information on applying for tickets for the event is available at www.yourschoolgames.com  

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