With just 11 months to go to the start of the athletics programme of the XXVII Olympiad in Sydney - 22 September to 1 October 2000 - the Sydney Organising Committe for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) has announced the state of sales of tickets of the various Olympic Sports.
So far 602,250 seats have been sold for the Athletics programme, with a further 240,900 tickets remaining to be sold. Only football has sold more tickets (638,700 with 485,450 remaining to be sold), confirming that the massive appeal of the "Queen of the Olympic Sports" remains as strong as ever.
Historically, Athletics has always been the greatest source of spectator interest - and ticket revenues - of the Olympic Games and this will doubtless also be true of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.