Olympic Park london 2011

London Olympics: 50 weeks to go: Bikes and Basketball open first

• Olympic Park holds test events this week
• Surrey hosts road practice event

The Olympic Park will hold test events this week,
including cycling and basketball. Photograph: Rex Features

A big week ahead for the Olympic Park as it holds inaugural test events ahead of the games, the first chance for competitors to use the facilities and for spectators to attend the venue.


Basketball goes first on Tuesday, with an invitational tournament, but perhaps more interesting for youngsters not looking for a confrontation with plod is the first go on the brand new, purpose-built BMX track at the World Cup event that starts on Friday.


It marks the first step at the end of a very long journey for James Bulley who began working on London's bid in 2003 and is now Locog's Director of Venues. "To have spent all this time planning and preparing, to get your hands on a venue and actually put some sport on at the Olympic Park and seeing the event take place is going to be a pretty thrilling moment for us," he said.


When the riders start down the eight-metre ramp on to a track made of approximately three Olympic swimming pools worth of dirt, it will be a satisfying moment for the director: "I look back over these last eight years, and this has not been something that we have just been quietly and happily ploughing away at there's always challenges … But to get to this stage, where we're putting on events in venues that have been built on time and to budget – it's really quite exciting."


In legacy terms, there is much to be excited about here as well. The BMX track will be reconfigured to suit all ages and abilities, then joined with the Velodrome, a road cycle circuit and mountain bike course as part of the new "VeloPark" a public hub for the sport.


But that remains a long way off. For Bulley, this is the start of the home straight. "In January we take over the Olympic Park in its entirety. Whereas it's been a building site for the last four years, it becomes a living breathing operational site for us," he said. "We're absolutely now on a countdown."


Read more at: Guardian