-          First Paralympic test eventa success
-          China win the London International Goalball Tournament

-          Local residents and school children enjoy world class Paralympic sport

Images from the London International Goalball Tournament can be downloaded here.

The Goalball test event, part of the London Prepares series, gave local residents and school children the chance to watch Goalball, a sport for visually impaired athletes, for the first time. The event was also used by the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) to test key operations including technology and timing, workforce and the transition of the field of play following last weekend’s Handball test event.

Five women’s teams from China, Canada, Great Britain, Sweden and USA battled it out in the Olympic Handball Arena but it was China who came out on top with Canada taking silver and USA taking bronze. The Great Britain team finished in fifth place. Goalball is one of the Paralympic events with tickets still available for next year and tickets can be bought now after they went back on sale last Friday.

Debbie Jevans, Director of Sport at LOCOG said: “The London International Goalball Tournament has been vital for us to test our operations and to test the transition of the venue and field of play from Handball to Goalball, replicating the same transition as at Games time. We are really happy with how both the transition and the tournament have gone and it was great to get spectators into the Handball Arena to watch world-class Paralympic sport.”

For more information and results from the London International Goalball Tournament visit www.londonpreparesseries.com

Remaining tickets for the London 2012 Paralympic Games are now on sale on a first come, first served basis at www.tickets.london2012.com.

Ends

For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office on +44 (0)203 2012 100 or visit the website at www.london2012.com. Find out the latest from London 2012 HQ on our blog http://www.london2012.com/blog or follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/london2012

Notes to editors

Goalball is a 3-a-side team sport played by visually impaired athletes using a ball with bells inside. Play is conducted in silence with just the sound of the bells used to judge movement of the ball.

London 2012 Games partners:
The Worldwide Olympic Partners who support the London 2012 Olympic Games and the National Olympic Committees around the world are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow Chemical Company, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung and Visa.

LOCOG has seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are seven domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. There are now twenty-eight domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Aggreko, Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, CBS Outdoor, Crystal CG, Eurostar, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, G4S, GSK, Gymnova, Heathrow Airport, Heineken UK, Holiday Inn, John Lewis, McCann Worldgroup, Mondo, NATURE VALLEY, Next, Nielsen, Populous, Rapiscan Systems, Rio Tinto, Technogym, Thames Water, Ticketmaster, Trebor and Westfield.

There is one domestic Tier One Paralympic Games-only Partner, Sainsbury’s and one domestic Tier Three Paralympic Games-only Supplier, Otto Bock.