London 2012: More than half did not get tickets

Five separate ballots were run for the 100m final

More than half of people who applied for London 2012 Olympic Games tickets did not receive any in the ballot, BBC London has learnt.

About 1.8m people applied for the 6.6m public tickets available. About 55% of applicants missed out.

There is a second ballot for the million who were unsuccessful but no tickets remain for the opening and closing ceremonies or athletics finals.

London 2012 said those who missed out will have priority in the next ballot.

BBC London's Olympics correspondent Adrian Warner said the big events had sold out but added that cheaper events like BMX and archery had also all gone.

He said: "Even though people will be entered into a second ballot, the cheaper tickets have gone.

"So, for example, if you do want to watch track and field it will be the preliminaries and it will cost between £40, which is double the cheapest available, and £150."

A London 2012 spokesman said: "Those who were unsuccessful in the initial process will have priority in the next round of sales which start later this month and they will be contacted soon to inform them about the next steps.

"There are still plenty of tickets available to see great Olympic sport across all price points."

Paul Deighton, chief executive of London 2012, told BBC London that he understood the disappointment of Londoners and that London 2012 was working as hard as possible to make tickets in the second round available to as many people as possible.

Pay-your-age tickets

"The objective of the second round is that it is exclusively for those that participated in the first round," he said.

"We want to make sure that people who were disappointed first time around have the best chance of getting tickets."

He said there was a huge demand for both the cheaper and the expensive tickets, and that there was "a whole range of tickets left", including £20 as well as pay-your-age tickets.

"The biggest chunk of tickets are in the team sports where we have lots of matches, big venues, so it's with volleyball, hockey, tennis, basketball, handball," he said.

Chris Townsend, London 2012's director responsible for tickets, said last week: "The ballot was run on a session basis, a separate ballot was run for each price point that was oversubscribed in the session.

"For example, for the 100m final, five separate ballots were run, one for each price point."