DETAILS of the bid to bring the Olympic Torch to Kirklees have been revealed.

The authority had to submit its proposals to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games ahead of a decision on where the iconic flame will pass through ahead of the massive event.

If successful, 20,000 school children would walk behind the torch towards St Georges Square in a symbolic statement that youth is behind the games.

Lead officer on the Olympics for Kirklees Council, sports development officer Martin Gonzalez, said the location would perfectly sum up what Kirklees can achieve.

He said: The train station means it would be easily accessible via sustainable transport.

The statue of Harold Wilson shows the contribution to the life of the country and in The George Hotel you have the birthplace of an international sport Rugby League.

We are also promoting the idea that as one of the largest towns this is the chance to do something different and not focus solely on cities.

As part of the system to attract competitors to Pre-Games Training Camps, local venues are open for Olympic business but so far the town has had no takers.

The sites appearing on an index for foreign teams are the Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield Sports Centre and Leeds Road Playing Fields.

The three locations are available for football, basketball and volleyball and athletics respectively.

As Mr Gonzalez explained however, the strict rules surrounding involvement in the Olympics mean authorities cannot go actively pursuing the support of foreign countries.

He said: Anything to do with the Olympics is scrutinised unbelievably, you cant even produce a flier or a bit of literature without it being overseen quite closely.

Kirklees were asked to nominate the facilities we wanted to put forward.

The list has a synopsis of each venue that is circulated internationally. It is down to the teams to see what they like and theres not a great deal we can do about it.

The difficulty is there are facilities like the National Institute for Sport and the Don Valley Stadium in Sheffield, which naturally are very attractive and have a global reputation.

Also, if you think of countries like France and Germany, they dont have the problem of acclimatisation so they can train where they are comfortable and head to London on the Eurostar a few days before the opening ceremony.

There are also several teams such as Australia who have long-standing agreements with places like Manchester.

In the meantime however we really are trying to do everything we can to convey to the powers that be that we are absolutely behind the games.

Yorkshire Gold is an initiative set up to promote the regions potential and it has announced that the Serbian team will be based in Sheffield and Leeds. The Dutch swimming team will also be in Leeds.

Although Kirklees has yet to succeed as a pre-games training camp, it was one of the first districts to get together an Olympic legacy programme, including the Kirklees Youth Games, involving 1,000 children, which has been recognised by the London 2012 Inspire Programme.

It has also recognised Mission: Active Kirklees which promotes health and activities among the young.

The route of the Olympic torch will not be announced for a year.

BATLEY Sports and Tennis Centre was among the centres marking the two-year countdown to the games.

Yorkshire Gold, which works to promote the region ahead of the Olympics, helped launch the s25million fundraising target set for Team 2012.

It provides smaller businesses with an opportunity to support high performance Olympic and Paralympic sport.

Minister for Sport and Olympics, Hugh Robertson, said: Sports funding has always come from a mixture of exchequer, lottery and private sources.

As a Government, we have committed substantial exchequer and Lottery funding for our elite athletes in the run-up to 2012 but it has never been more important, given the difficult economic situation were in, to have business behind our athletes. Supporting the Olympics is not just something the big multi-nationals can do it is within the reach of every small and medium business in the UK. With just two years to go until the Games begin, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support the UKs Team 2012 athletes on their home turf.

More information from www.team-2012.com/sme