Local Olympic Champion Leaves Golden Impression

29.07.2008 00:42:00

The National Lottery today recognised the sporting achievements of Olympic Games gold medallist, David Hemery CBE, in a special event to celebrate the launch of the Go For Gold Scratchcard to support London 2012.

David, an outstanding member of the British athletics squad from 1968 to 1972 and gold medallist in the 400m hurdles at the Mexico City Olympic Games in 1968, was immortalised today by having an impression of his hands and feet cast for a unique, golden plaque. This special series of commemorative works has been commissioned by The National Lottery to honour British Olympic Games competitors and World Champions from every corner of the UK, with the aim of exhibiting them in the build up to London 2012.

The special event took place in his home county of Gloucestershire at Gloucester Athletic Club. David said: “I am very proud to have represented Great Britain at the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games but being recognised like this, here in my home county of Gloucestershire, is a huge thrill. I’d like to thank The National Lottery for helping raise funds that will go towards London 2012 which will be an event that we, as an entire country, will be extremely proud of.”

Offering players a whole range of instant cash prizes at their fingertips – up to a top prize of £1 million* – the Go For Gold Scratchcard is the latest designated National Lottery game to help raise the funding required to stage the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games. With four games to play on each ticket, the Go For Gold Scratchcard costs £5 to play and offers overall odds of 1 in 3.92 of winning a prize.

National Lottery funding will contribute almost £2.2 billion to the public funding package for the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Of this, £750 million will come from specially designated lottery games – like the draw-based game, Dream Number, certain Scratchcards including Go For Gold, and all interactive Instant Win Games at National-Lottery.co.uk.

All the Good Causes money raised from sales of these designated games will go towards funding the provision of facilities and supporting infrastructure for the 2012 Games. Sales of designated lottery games are ahead of schedule, with over £300 million already raised.

More than £3 billion has already been invested in sport from money raised by National Lottery players across the UK since 1994. In fact, over the last 10 years, 287 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games medals have been won by lottery-funded athletes.

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Client name: The National Lottery

Web link: www.national-lottery.co.uk