Paralympic Games: Atmosphere even better than Olympics at some events – Lord Coe

Packed crowds at London 2012 venues were lauded as a “powerful and eloquent statement” about the status of Paralympic sport by organising committee chairman Lord Coe yesterday.

A total of 122,000 spectators watched athletes compete on Thursday, the first of 11 days of competitive sport.

Lord Coe said he was not surprised at the “extraordinary interest” in the Games, and he claimed the atmosphere at some events had surpassed that achieved at the Olympics.

“I’m delighted track and field again is being performed in front of pretty much full venues,” he said.

“Of course it’s a very powerful and eloquent statement about the status of the sport.

“The question I guess many of you asked in the earlier days, certainly in the lead-up to this, was could we ignite the excitement and the interest? Well, yes we have.

“It was probably a better atmosphere in the Aquatics Centre last night than there was just a couple of weeks ago, in large part because we’d actually got some very good and solid home-town performances last night.”