体坛英语新闻：Over 20 million 2012 Olympic tickets applied for

LONDON, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Over 20 million tickets were applied for with around 1.8 million people submitting requests for tickets, revealed the LOCOG after the application process for London 2012 Olympic tickets closed at 1am on Wednesday.

The Olympic ticket process opened on 15 March 2011 and was planned to close on 26 April 2011 with 6.6 million tickets on sale as part of this process.

However, some people experienced a temporary delay in accessing the Olympic ticketing site following a surge of applications around 10:30pm on Tuesday. The LOCOG then decided to leave the ticketing system to remain open until 1am on Wednesday.

The LOCOG said, applications were received for every session, every sport, across every price point. Over 50% of the 650 sessions are oversubscribed and tickets will be allocated via ballots.

Track cycling, rhythmic gymnastics, triathlon, modern pentathlon, equestrian (cross country) and both ceremonies become London 2012's first sellout events in this initial public application process and will go to ballot as will the majority of the sessions in swimming and tennis.

LOCOG chairman Sebastian Coe said the opening ceremony was more than 10 times oversubscribed. "So there will understandably be disappointment and we will find a way to go back to those people with other tickets."

Money will be taken from accounts from 10 May 2011 and customers will receive confirmation of which events they will receive tickets for in June 2011.