Olympic venues approach final sprint to completion

The 7,000-capacity handball arena yesterday became the latest venue to be finished and the basketball venue is nearing completion.

The handball arena, in the west of the Olympic Park, complete with 3,000 square metres of external copper cladding, is where handball, goalball and modern pentathlon will take place during the Games. It is due to become a multi-use sports centre for community use and athlete training after the Games.

The basketball arena, billed as one of the largest temporary venues built for any Games, will stage the basketball, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and the final stages of the handball competition in front of up to 12,000 spectators.

The public sector funding package for the Games has stayed at £9.298bn but the estimated costs for the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), in charge of Olympic build and infrastructure, has been cut by £35m to £7.266bn.

In a written Ministerial statement Mr Robertson said the ODA had made “strong progress” adding: “We continue to seek value for money and cost savings in our day-to-day running of the project.”

More than 240 British businesses have won contracts for the construction of the 80,000-seat £486m Olympic Stadium and more than 5,250 people have worked on the project during the last three years.