Crowds make powerful statement about status of event says Coe

A total of 122,000 spectators watched athletes compete on Thursday as the first of 11 days of competitive sport got under way.

About 78,000 people arrived at the Olympic Park while the ExCeL centre, which is hosting six Paralympic events, recorded 18,000 spectators.

Speaking at the Olympic Park, Lord Coe said he was not surprised at the “extraordinary interest” in the Games, and he claimed the atmosphere at some events had surpassed that achieved at the Olympics.

“I’m delighted track and field again is being performed in front of pretty much full venues,” Lord Coe said.

“Of course it’s a very powerful and eloquent statement about the status of the sport.

“The question I guess many of you asked in the earlier days, certainly in the lead up to this, was could we ignite the excitement and the interest? Well, yes we have.

“It was probably a better atmosphere in Aquatics Centre last night than there was just a couple of weeks ago, in large part because we’d actually got some very good and solid hometown performances last night.”

Up to 80,000 tickets are still available for the Games, with an average of 10,000 to be released each day, Locog said.

Organisers said they were expecting a “big spike” in the number of people at the park this weekend, with two sessions of athletics in the Olympic Stadium on Saturday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has got into the spirit of the Paralympic Games as he tried his hand at sitting volleyball.

The mayor of London joined actress Barbara Windsor for a game at London’s ExCeL arena as the opening matches of the men’s and women’s competitions got under way.

After taking to the court Mr Johnson posed for a photograph with the British women’s team which lost 3-0 to Ukraine in their opening match.

These are the first Games in which ParalympicsGB have entered the sitting volleyball competition.

Among the players was Martine Wright who fulfilled her dream of representing her country at the Paralympics after being horrifically injured in the 7/7 bombings. Both of her legs were amputated and doctors told her she had lost 75 per cent of her blood.

If it was not for another passenger, off-duty police officer Elizabeth Kenworthy, who helped tie a makeshift tourniquet around one of her legs, she would not have survived