London 2012: One million bid for Olympics 100m tickets

The Olympic Stadium at Stratford will host the showpiece men's 100 metres final

London 2012 organisers have received more than one million requests for tickets for the Olympic men's 100 metres final.

The session, at the Olympic Stadium on 5 August next year, is one of the most sought after of the London Games.

Some 40,000 seats are available after the stadium capacity was halved through sponsors, VIPs and the media.

Applicants will find out by 24 June whether they have got any of the 6.6 million Olympics tickets available.

Level of demand

Some 1.8 million people applied, with a total of 20 million ticket applications.

On Friday organising committee Locog said it would not release a sport-by-sport breakdown of figures on ticket requests until next month at the earliest.

Competition to see the 100 metres final - likely to feature Jamaican sprinter and reigning Olympic champion Usain Bolt - was always going to be fierce.

Such was the level of demand in the recent ballot for tickets that the Olympic Stadium in east London could have been sold out at least 20 times over.

BBC sports editor David Bond says those who have applied for Olympics tickets will be watching their bank accounts for a clue to what tickets they have been allocated.

But with other big events likely to be just as over subscribed as the 100 metres final, millions of people could be left disappointed.

Selling method

Olympics organisers are looking to make £500m from ticket sales as part of bid to raise £2bn through private means.

Lord Coe, chairman of Locog, said: "It is really important as 25% of everything that you see out there in terms of the organisation of these Games is our ability to nail our revenues from tickets."

Lord Coe has also defended the method for selling Olympics tickets which sees payments taken from people's accounts before they know which tickets they have been given.

He said: "It was very clear from us, very early on that we would be taking the money out and we would then let people know what they got.

"It is easier to do that all at the same time rather than in dribs and drabs. This was always the way."

The price of Olympics tickets ranges from £20 to £725 for the showpiece 100 metres final, and reaches £2,012 for the opening ceremony on 27 July.

On Wednesday, the first 74 locations on the 2012 Olympics torch relay route were revealed.

Starting at Land's End, it will see the Olympic torch travel 8,000 miles (12,800 km) covering every nation and region in the UK including island visits.