2012 Olympic Games : Londan

2012 Olympic Games to be held in Londan

December 22 2009 : Wembley Arena to host 2012 badminton and gymnastics

Badminton and rhythmic gymnastics at London 2012 are set to be held at Wembley Arena after approval from the International Olympic Committee.

The move, made citing the "exceptional circumstances" of the recession, would mean a temporary £40m venue will not need to be built in Greenwich. Badminton's governing body wanted to be near to the Olympic Park in Stratford .

But athletes are likely to be offered nearby accommodation and training facilities to cut travel times. The Badminton World Federation's council is due to meet in Bali on Friday to discuss the issue.

"There is some saving to make - the two federations have been very co-operative and understand it was wise to look for a cheaper solution," said International Olympic Committee (IOC) official Denis Oswald after a two-day inspection of London 's preparations.

"The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games [Locog] has made proposals in that direction, which has agreed in principle by the two federations. "It still has to be finalised but we have no doubt this situation will be finally resolved in the coming few weeks."

Locog chairman Sebastian Coe said: "It's a combination of cost - everyone recognises the world has changed dramatically since when we bid - but it's also about legacy and athlete experience. "So these are the fine judgements. But these are the last two sports.

Wembley's been agreed by the leadership of those two sports and the leadership of the IOC as well." London mayor Boris Johnson said: "I am pleased and thank the two federations for understanding our concerns to save money wherever we can in these tough economic circumstances."

Oswald, the chairman of the IOC's co-ordination commission, came to London 's support when it was suggested they had reneged on their bid promise for athletes to "compete and not commute", saying that the global financial crisis had caused exceptional circumstances.

"I don't think we can say London went back on their promise," said Oswald.

"The two venues are exceptions and we should not forget that training facilities are all very close to the Village and athletes spend 90-95% of the time training rather than competing.

"If in two sports the athletes have to travel a little further than expected and can walk from a hotel to the venue I don't think it can be an issue. "We just hope we won't have a world financial crisis every four years."

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has campaigned for the cost-saving move to Wembley. "I am pleased and thank the two federations for understanding our concerns to save money wherever we can in these tough economic times," he said in a statement.

"I am confident that Seb and his team will ensure that every athlete competing at Wembley in 2012 will not only have a great venue, but all the facilities they need, right on the doorstep, to help them go for gold."

Oswald said the inspection overall had been very positive and that significant advances had been made since the IOC's last visit in April. "With less than 1,000 days to go until the opening ceremony of the Games we have been hearing about the advances made by Locog in the last few months.

"A lot of work has been done since we were here last time, this is very positive and we really start feeling the Games are taking shape. " London is on track to deliver an excellent Games."

BT's super-fast broadband network for 2012 Olympic Games : Londan

BT to complete super-fast broadband network by 2012

BT's superfast broadband network will be completed in time for the 2012 Olympic Games, the firm has announced. The £1.5bn fibre-optic network will offer speeds of up to 100 Megabits per second (Mbps) for some customers, supporting high-definition video.

However, it will only reach around 40% of homes, mainly in towns and cities. The firm had originally said the programme would be completed by March 2013 but said the rollout was now "ahead of schedule".

"Given the progress we're making, four million homes will have access to fibre by the end of next year," said Ian Livingston, CEO of BT. He said the firm aims to offer 10m homes access to the fibre network "by the time the games begin" on the 27 July.

The firm currently has 5m customers. But extending the coverage would "inevitably involve support from the public sector", he added. Customers will be able to access the highest speeds where BT runs fibre-optic cables all the way to their home.

However, the network will still offer speeds of up to 40 Mbps in areas where the fibre cable is run to BT-owned cabinets. In these fibre-to-the-cabinet areas, homes will still be connected to the cabinets by slower copper cables. Currently, BT's rival Virgin Media offers some homes broadband speeds of up to 50 Mbps over fibre, regarded as super-fast broadband.

The UK government has said it wants super-fast broadband available to 90% of the country by the end of 2017 and everyone in the country to have access to broadband speeds of 2Mbps by 2012.

However, Mr Livingston called for further clarity from the UK government. "If you look around the world, several governments are pro-actively supporting the roll out of fibre broadband," he said. "There's still a debate in the UK - which is fine - but we need our politicians to decide how much of a priority fibre broadband is."

The government plans to introduce an annual tax of £6 to fund the rollout of broadband, particularly for rural areas.

RFU want to stage sevens event in Olympic Stadium in 2012

Rugby officials are still optimistic that sevens will feature at London 2012 as a non-medal event and even hope to be able to use the Olympic Stadium to showcase a sport that will be introduced officially to the Games at Rio in 2016.

Mike Miller, the chief executive of the International Rugby Board (IRB), told insidethegames that there remains a possibility that rugby sevens could yet make an unofficial appearance at the London 2012 Games as an exhibition event.

He said: "There are no demonstration events as such at the Olympic Games any more but the Chinese martial art of Wushu wasn't on the Olympic programme in 2008 yet it was part of the Beijing Olympics.

"I know that there are various people talking about things at the moment and whether it comes to be a reality or not I don't know but it would be a shame not to have rugby sevens in London in 2012 because it would be a hugely popular event."

The chances of a special exhibition being held have been boosted by rugby sevens being voted onto the programme by the International Olympic Committee at its Session in Copenhagen in October.

Chairman of the Rugby Football Union (RFU) Management Board Martyn Thomas told insidethegames: "We have made it clear that we would be very happy to cooperate with the powers that be if they do want rugby to feature at the London 2012 Games."