Coe wants vuvuzela-free Olympics

Sebastian Coe wants a vuvuzela-free London Olympics in 2012, the Games chief said.

The plastic horns have provided the soundtrack to soccer’s World Cup in South Africa but were banned from the Wimbledon tennis and Coe does not want the one-pitched drone causing headaches for athletes and fans when the Games start.

“I’m a libertarian on these issues but Olympic sport is very particular and you wouldn’t want anything to trespass on that extraordinary theatre that takes place in the five or six minutes before the 100 metres final,” he told Reuters.

“It is the silence and expectation that defines that moment and it’s very clear most Olympic sports demand very different approaches from spectators,” added Coe after showing International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge inside London’s 80 000-seater stadium.

Coe, who helped Rogge fix the 2012th seat in the stadium that is on course to be completed by the end of the year, said he hoped the passion shown by football fans in South Africa would also be a feature of the London Olympics.

“I didn’t go to the World Cup but from what I’m hearing it has been very well organised,” he said. “They have had noisy, passionate stadiums and I’m sure in our country where sport is very important we will have the same.”