Beach volleyball to test venue

Basketball and BMX will be the first sports to test out London's Olympic Park this summer, while beach volleyball will be staged in Horse Guards Parade in August in another dry run. All three events will be ticketed, with prices ranging from £5 to £35.

Locog, the London organisers, are to hold 42 test events over the next year in preparation for next summer's Games with international athletes invited to get their first experience of many venues. A total of 150,000 tickets will be on sale across several events to help test out ticketing technology, although many will be free for the public. The two events in the Olympic Park will be held in mid-August, as will the beach volleyball. "This is a dress rehearsal for us but the public of course will see the rehearsal not the dress. It will look and feel quite different [to the Olympics]," Locog's chief executive Paul Deighton said.

Other warm-up events that will be ticketed are the first use of the velodrome in February and similarly the aquatics centre the same month.