Volleyball for Hyde Park

Beach volleyball could be heading to Hyde Park

Beach volleyball in Hyde Park could become part of London's bid for the 2012 Olympics, Barbara Cassani has revealed.

The bid will be based on an Olympic complex in East London's Stratford, but leading Olympic experts have already called for central London venues to be used to make the campaign more attractive to International Olympic Committee members.

Volleyball was held on a specially constructed court on sun-drenched Bondi Beach for the Sydney Olympics and was a surprise hit with the public.

Bid chairman Cassani said: "We are thinking of Hyde Park being part of a cultural programme with parties every night. We are also thinking of staging triathlon and maybe beach volleyball there."

She made it clear that no final decision had been made yet, but while the bid will be used to help regenerate the lower Lea Valley, Cassani has realised that other parts of London have to be promoted to boost the image of the bid.

Cassani was talking to a meeting of potential designers of a logo for the bid at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square today. She is rushing to catch up with favourites Paris, which unveiled its logo and slogan - "The Games of all the Colours" - back in May.

Cassani and her marketing director David Magliano hope to find a logo by the third week of October after a competition which has already attracted the interest of more than 600 design agencies and individuals. Hundreds of them signed up and gathered to hear Cassani and Magliano outline the requirements.

The IOC, who decide on the 2012 venue in July 2005, do not allow cities to use the word 'Olympics' in their advertising until they have won the right to stage the Games.

Magliano said the 2012 logo had to represent the mixture of London's "old and new" characteristics.

This is particularly important, given that the Olympics will be based in Stratford and that the regeneration of the East End is a crucial part of the bid.

"We want to move beyond Big Ben, red buses and black cabs," he said.

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