MAY 13 - SEBASTIAN COE (pictured) has defended the lack of Olympic-related contacts awarded to Wales and promised there will be plenty of opportunities for them to cash in on the Games.

 

As insidethegames reported last month, so far only three contracts out of more than 600 have been awarded to companies in Wales.

 

But Coe, during a visit to Pwllheli Sailing Club and Wrexham's Racecourse ground, said: "It’s very early days when we are talking about contracts being awarded, we are four and a half years out, most of those contracts that have gone have been the big construction contracts for things like the Olympic stadium or the aquatic centre or the media centre.

 

"But the responsibility of the Olympic Delivery Authority – and in turn it will be us when we start looking at some of the other types of contracts, the service contracts, the equipment, all the things we need for the event to work – the real task for us will be for us to try and free up the supply chain.

 

"So for every big contract that goes to build a stadium, there is a secondary contract that goes out, as it has done to a company up in Bolton to supply the steel for that.

 

"These are a London games, but my responsibility is for people to realise this is a UK-wide project."

 

The London 2012 chairman also hit back at claims that projects in Wales were not being awarded National Lottery because of the Olympics.

 

Recently Sports Council for Wales chiefs turned down a £93,511 plan to build a cycle track in Colwyn Bay citing a seriously depleted lottery budget as part of the reason.

 

Coe said: "There is no displacement of National Lottery money until the end of next year.

 

"So any decision which has taken place in any part of the country about not going ahead with a capital programme is made at a local level and that is for local people to decide whether that was a good or bad decision, it is not an Olympic displacement.

 

"If there is going to be displacement that will take place from 2009."