Olympic Shorts: Festival bosses hope Hoy and Murray can blaze golden trail to Edinburgh

The director of the Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards issued a rallying cry to Scotland's Olympians to support the Edinburgh Festival, as the success of the Games has seen ticket sales come under pressure.

Nica Burns, who co-owns Nimax Theatres, called on the athletes – including Andy Murray, rower Katherine Grainger and "one of the city's greatest sons" Sir Chris Hoy, to "bang the drum for us". "Get on your bike. Bring your medals home, and invite the world to come along with you," Ms Burns said. "Give a message out to one and all to come and enjoy the greatest arts festival in the world."

Condom tale gets journalists' imagination running too fast

What do you get if you put thousands of young male and female Olympians in one place and ask journalists to imagine what they're up to beyond the highest, strongest and fastest stuff? Yes, almost at the same time as it did in Beijing and Athens, the running-out-of-condoms story has made its first appearance at London 2012. Around 130,00 condoms were ordered by Chinese organisers four years ago. The number for London is marginally higher, and free for those who need them.

But have they run out? "No, we haven't," said a Games spokeswoman, "because we ordered quite a lot." Regardless, rumours abound that swimmers in the village with God-like bodies are making it known they're single and excited. "Oh, must get round there straight away," joked the official.

The Pringle springs a leak as spectators raise the roof

Whether it's the urban dictionary's "mass awesomeness" or the more conventional "raising the roof", the noise of the crowd at the velodrome might be affecting more than Team GB's golds. Water droplets have appeared in Chinese team's pen and among the potential culprits is a leak in the curved roof of the "Pringle".

The velodrome's architecture is cutting-edge: temperature-perfect conditions means medal winners move air out of the way faster than others as they speed round the banked track. But if the arena's 6,000 crowd were expected to sit in the seats and just applaud, then someone's got it wrong. Instead it's been serial mayhem; everyone stands, shouts, screams, waves flags. So is it all affecting "optimum" air conditions, causing leaks to appear?

The handymen, as they say, have been called in to investigate, but a London 2012 spokesman said the "minor leaks" would have no impact on the competition.

A mix-up in the post...

Cyclist Laura Trott will have an extra honour after a mix-up. Royal Mail is painting a postbox gold in every winner's home town. It said one would be in Harlow, listed by Team GB as her home. Cheshunt, where she is actually from, will get one too.