One thousand days may be a folk band from Missouri or the honeymoon period Henry VIII afforded Anne Boleyn before cutting off her head but, come tomorrow, it is also the time London has left to prepare for the 2012 Olympics.

British sports chiefs do not intend to let it pass idly by. Between now and the opening ceremony on July 27, 2012, they aim to host 64 events in 20 cities starting with the UCI Track Cycling World Cup in Manchester today.

The £32 million programme, covering 30 different Olympic and Paralympic sports with more than 17,000 international athletes, equates to one world-class sporting event taking place in the UK every fortnight.

The economic return of the pipeline is estimated to be up to £240 million, according to UK Sport. Twenty-five of the events are confirmed with agreements imminent for the balance. It will be coupled with £11 billion investment that the tourist industry claims will benefit London’s infrastructure.

John Steele, UK Sport’s chief executive, said: “We believe this is the most comprehensive programme of major events leading into a Games that any host country has ever put together. It will provide British athletes with the opportunity to perform in front of a home crowd and the public with a chance to experience world-class sporting action in their local area.”

Some of the competitions will be official test events for the Games; all will provide valuable experience for 13,000 volunteers and officials. Up to 70,000 volunteers will be needed in 2012.

The unique scale of the Olympics can be the undoing of host cities that fail to start work early enough. Unlike the organisational chaos that preceded the Athens Games in 2004, the planning strategy for London is on schedule.

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, yesterday declared himself satisfied with progress, although he warned there was no room for complacency.

“London are progressing according to their masterplan; they stay within budget and it is a very strong team,” he said. Referring to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York that derailed preparations for the Salt Lake City Winter Games and sent the security bill for Athens rocketing to €1 billion, he added: “But there is always a need to be vigilant until the very last day because unexpected things do happen.”

Security remains the biggest unpredictable element in London’s meticulous plan. Work, led by the Home Office, has begun to co-ordinate the response of the intelligence and emergency services but the £838 million budget could still rocket if London suffers a repeat of the July 7 bombings.

Three to watch

Lisa Dobriskey
Athletics
The 25-year-old middle-distance runner from Kent won gold in the 1,500 metres at the Commonwealth Games in 2006 and was a decent outside bet coming into the 2008 Olympics. She set a personal best in her heat and in the final but was devastated after coming fourth in Beijing — a third of a second off a medal. She will be coming to her peak nicely in 2012. Suffered a stress fracture in her back earlier this year and finished third in the 1,500 metres at the World Championships in Berlin, which was upgraded to silver after the winner was disqualified for shoving. Ran her best time of 3min 59.50sec in Zurich this year, which is 1.6sec behind Kelly Holmes’s British record. Her father is a soil consultant working for Sir Robert McAlpine, the construction company building the 2012 Olympic site. Dig for victory, as they used to say.

Alex Gregory
Rowing
Great Britain have a fine tradition in the men’s four, with Olympic gold medals at the past three Olympics, but this year’s crew were a new unit. Three of them had won silver in the eight in Beijing and there was a fresh face in Gregory, a 25-year-old who had switched from sculling to sweep rowing last year. Gregory was found through the World Class Start talent-identification programme and his best finish at world under-23 level was fourth, in the double in 2005. He was taken to Beijing as a spare and last winter was asked by Peter Reed, an Olympic champion in the four, to row with him in the national trials. They won and Gregory earned his place in the four. It was a glorious debut season, with two golds and a bronze in the three World Cups and then a gold in the World Championships in Poland.

Shanaze Reade
Cycling
If a 19-year-old can regard not winning a gold medal in her first Olympics as disappointing, she must be very good. Reade, from Crewe, began racing BMX bikes at the age of ten and by the time she was 17 was winning national titles against senior men. In 2007, she won the senior women’s world BMX title, which she defended a year later. She is also an accomplished track cyclist. After six weeks of training, Reade won gold in the World Championships team sprint with Victoria Pendleton in 2007. They won again in 2008, but she chose to compete on the BMX in Beijing. In the final, she crashed in a risky move to take first place when an easy silver was on offer and missed a medal. Won a silver with Pendleton at this year’s World Championships and will be a contender in 2012, whether on the track or the dirt.