Fierce competition for Olympic tickets brings site to a halt

Many people experienced problems when online applications reopened, receiving "try again later" messages, even after being told that their payment had gone through.

Would-be ticket purchasers were warned not to refresh their browser if they were greeted with a message about "high demand" while applying.

A statement on the London 2012 website said: "Demand is extremely high at the moment on the ticketing website but the system is still transacting.

"If you've clicked submit, don't hit refresh. Please wait and the system will process your order.

"If you receive the error 'sorry, we cannot process your payment details', your tickets will be saved in your basket. Please wait a few minutes and try again."

A spokeswoman for London 2012 said: "It was like being at a tube station at rush hour - we had a few people held at the gates."

The whole ticketing process for the Games has come under fire from fans, who have branded it unfair and disorganised. Money was taken from successful applicants' bank accounts weeks before they found out what events they would be going to see - while those who registered but did not get any tickets had to wait until yesterday to reapply.

London mayor Boris Johnson failed to get any tickets for the event in the first round.

Three-times Olympic cycle champion Bradley Wiggins, who is hoping to defend his team pursuit title next year, branded the process a "bit of a shambles".

Mr Wiggins, 31, was one of the 1.2 million people who missed out on tickets in the first round.

He said a lot of his family will miss out on seeing him compete. Organisers have guaranteed athletes will be able to buy two tickets for every session in which they are competing.

Mr Wiggins said: "I think, as most of the public feels, it's a bit of a shambles, the ticket allocation. It's a shame when you know what works so successfully in other Olympic Games, certainly Athens, that they couldn't implement those ticket systems here. I'd love to have my family there. It's a shame but there's nothing you can do about it."

But some were upbeat: "Yippee I've got e-mail from London 2012 saying I got Olympic tickets, hope it's 100 metres final," Tweeted Jim Murphy, MP for East Renfrewshire.

Others who were successful in the first round, but only won a fraction of the tickets they had wanted - often their last choice - also branded the process as unfair.

"It is quite annoying that when you only get one you are totally excluded for weeks - which means people who initially got none could end up getting several, which may all be gone by the time we are allowed to apply again," said Paul Stevenson, 32, from Edinburgh, who despite bidding for hundreds of pounds of tickets, won just two.

London 2012 was flooded with 22 million requests from 1.9 million people for the 6.6 million tickets available to the public. So far three million tickets have been sold.

The ten-day second chance sale includes tickets for 310 sessions, including 44 medal events - but 1.7 million of the tickets are for football, eight matches of which will be played at Glasgow's Hampden Park.

Anyone who got tickets in the first round sale will get another chance to buy from 6am on 8 July to 6pm on 17 July.

OK for saltire

Organisers of next year's London Olympics say there are "no plans" to ban the saltire - breaking from rules introduced at the Beijing and Sydney Games.

Any flags not belonging to the "participating nations" - including the saltire, and the national flags of England, Northern Ireland and Wales - were banned from previous Games, sparking anger from many Scots.