3:30 AM
Shweta Pandey
Organisers have also revealed that 1.8m people submitted requests for the 6.6m available public tickets, whose six-week sale window closed in the early hours of this morning. And 95 percent of these applications come from the United Kingdom.
They report that applications were received for every session, every sport and across every price point. Track cycling, rhythmic gymnastics, triathlon, modern pentathlon, equestrian cross country and both ceremonies have become London 2012’s first sell out events.
The majority of sessions in swimming have also sold out while tennis, despite being staged just a few weeks after Wimbledon, is another hot ticket.
Indeed organisers Locog claim that the opening ceremony, which will be produced by Oscar winning director Danny Boyle, could have sold out ten times over.
"We are thrilled with the response right across the board, in all sports and all sessions," said London 2012 chairman Seb Coe.
"Certain events have seen massive demand – for example the opening ceremony, which is more than ten times oversubscribed, so there will understandably be disappointment and we will find a way to go back to those people with other tickets.
"What is most encouraging is that the majority of applications are for multiple tickets and for several sports, which shows that friends and family are planning to go to the Games together."
However, some fans are furious that issues with the London 2012 website in the final hour of the ticket sale prevented them from applying.
Initial problems struck at around 10:30pm and lasted for approximately 20 minutes as the midnight deadline drew ever closer - prompting Locog to extend the sale by one hour.
London 2012 will now check applications before running computerised ballots for those sessions which are oversubscribed.
Money will be debited from accounts and credit cards from May 10th, although they may not get formal confirmation of which events they have been successful in buying tickets for until June.
Despite the success of the sale, London 2012 still expect to have £100 million worth of unsold tickets to sell, mainly for preliminary sessions of less popular sports and the UK wide football competition, which will be staged in Cardiff, Coventry, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle, in addition to London's Wembley Stadium.
Organisers believe those tickets won't really start to sell until teams are confirmed and draws are made next year - while there remains an issue over whether the Great Britain football team will be fully representative or just comprised of players from England.
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