London 2012 Olympics diary: gold medallist Steve Ovett in Olympic tickets snub

Odd: Steve Ovett was asked to promote tickets just as long as he didn't ask for any himself (Photo: Rex Features)

While Lord Coe can claim to be the world’s most high-profile ex-athlete, his old running rival Steve Ovett would appear to be the forgotten man.

Ovett, who beat Coe to the 800 metres gold medal at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, was invited earlier this year to take part in the 2012 Olympic ticket launch in London, joining fellow Olympic champions Carl Lewis, Nadia Comaneci and Rebecca Adlington.

Since he now lives in Australia, he was offered free travel and accommodation but was told he would not be paid a fee.

He replied that  he was happy to help out but wondered whether he might be sorted out with a couple of tickets to the 1500 metres final in the Olympic Stadium.

He was shocked to receive a standard letter from the London organising committee acknowledging his ticket application and advising him to apply through the public ballot. Needless to say, he decided to give the ticket launch a miss.

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World champion Dai Greene may still be short of Kriss Akabusi’s British 400 metres hurdles record but he can at least boast another prestigious mark.

While working at a drive-thru McDonalds restaurant in Llanelli in 2003 he and his co-workers broke a company record for the number of cars served with their orders within an hour.

“We served something like 140 cars and were told it was a record,” says Greene proudly. “You could say I’ve gone from quarter-pounder to quarter-miler.”

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Worshippers of Zoroastrianism will be reassured that their spiritual needs will be well catered for at London 2012, with organisers promising the most diverse network of multi-faith chaplains ever seen at a Games.

Nearly 200 chaplains are currently being recruited to offer support and counselling in the athletes’ village and venues as well as the main workplace areas for volunteers and employees.

Under the contract with the International Olympic Committee, host cities are required to provide chaplains for the five main religions – Christianity, Islam, Hindusim, Buddhism, Judaism – but London will be going further by offering chaplains in Sikhism, Jainism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism, which is estimated to have just 200,000 followers  worldwide.

“London is so diverse that for the last four years we have been working with the nine faiths that are usually recognised in the inter-faith network,” says Rev Canon Duncan Green, the London 2012 head of multi-faith services.

While providing specialist support in their own religions, the army of chaplains will be expected to work across different faiths.

Green said: “What we are actually saying is that whatever faith you are, we will cater for you, especially in our workforce because our workforce can be drawn from the UK, which is very ethnically diverse, or from all over the world.”

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Jemma Simpson, who topped the UK 800 metres rankings in 2010 but was hampered by injury problems this summer, has appealed against the decision of UK Athletics to drop her from the Lottery funding programme.

And quite right, too. Despite her health problems, Simpson still managed to finish third in this year’s domestic rankings and ran under the two-minute barrier, the benchmark for world-class 800m running, on two occasions.

But, bizarrely, she has axed from the World Class Performance Programme just nine months before the start of the Games.

Even stranger, Tasha Danvers, the injury-plagued Olympic 400m hurdles bronze medallist, remains on “podium” funding, despite having not managed a single race in 2011 and just one race in 2010.