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TBSF competition winners and coaches tour the Olympic Park with Seb Coe and Tony Blair

Lord Coe, chair of London 2012, and Tony Blair, founder of the Tony Blair Sports Foundation, today gave a selection of children and coaches from the North East a personal tour of the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, London, to highlight the inspiration the Games will provide and showcase the work being undertaken to ensure it delivers a sporting legacy for the region.

Just last month, Tony Blair launched the Sports Foundation's 'Coaches for Clubs' campaign with a tour of grassroots sports clubs across the North East, which has now received the Inspire mark from London 2012.

Inspired by 2012, the 'Coaches for Clubs' campaign sees the Foundation team up with school and sports clubs across the North East to inspire people to become volunteers, coaches and officials in the communities that need them most. The Inspire mark is an entirely new programme, something that no previous Olympic Games or Paralympic Games has done and shows how the Sports Foundation is working to provide the North East with an Olympic legacy.

Tony Blair said: "I am delighted to be able to bring our Tony Blair Sports Foundation competition winners and some of their coaches to the Olympic Park today – and what better way to see it than to get a tour from such an inspirational athlete as Seb Coe. It is also fantastic to see the amazing job Seb and the whole 2012 team have done to get the games ready on time and on budget.

"What we’re working on with the Tony Blair Sports Foundation is ensuring that there is a sporting legacy for the North East from the games. The Olympics is going to be the biggest focus for sport in the whole world for 2012, and that shouldn’t just be about the top-level athletes; it's also got to be about grassroots sports, and the key to grassroots sports are volunteers and coaches.

"And that's what the Tony Blair Sports Foundation’s ‘Coaches for Clubs’ campaign will do: it will inspire people to become volunteers and coaches and that will give thousands of children and young people access to sport, and I’m really proud that ‘Coaches for Clubs’ has received the Inspire mark from London 2012."

Among those attending are:

Children aged 8 from Rockcliffe School who take park in TBSF Club-School Coaching programme with their teacher and TBSF
athletics coach

Children aged 8/9 from Darras Hall School winners of TBSF Tennis competition with their teacher and TBSF tennis coach Stephanie Eadon

The four best young indoor rowers that competed in this year’s TBSF Get Going Get Rowing indoor rowing competition.

You can watch Tony Blair's interview with ITV Tyne Tees here.