Olympic hopefuls land in Sheffield to back Lottery funding of 2012 venue

OLYMPIC athletes landed in Sheffield’s Devonshire Green in a hot air balloon yesterday as part of a National Lottery-run tour round Britain.

The balloon is travelling around the country to highlight money spent on Lottery tickets is being used to fund the infrastructure and the venues for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. More than 25m is raised by the National Lottery each week for good causes and up to 2.2bn of that is set to be contributed to the Games.

Those on the balloon when it flew into Sheffield included Olympic taekwondo bronze medallist Sarah Stevenson, FINA World diving silver medallist Ben Swain and European Junior diving silver medallist Megan Sylvester, who are all Yorkshire based, together with European bronze boxing medallists Gamal Yafai and Warren Baister.

Sheffield Council cabinet member for culture, sport and tourism Coun Roger Davison said: “Lottery players are making a vital contribution to both our elite athletes and the development of the London 2012 venues and their legacy. This hot air balloon is just one way of celebrating their support.

“We’re delighted the National Lottery has brought the balloon to Sheffield which, along with the rest of Yorkshire, will be playing its part in hosting the world’s largest sporting event.”