IN one of the most dramatic finishes to the women's 4x100 metre sprint relays at the Paralympics, Bohunt student Olivia Breen managed to win a bronze medal at the Olympic Stadium on Tuesday night.

And 200 cheering staff and students from her school were only able to witness her part in Paralympic history after London 2012 organisers bent over backwards to get them into the stadium.

Hopes of the students seeing her in the finals looked bleak after the Olympic schedule was changed at the 11th hour.

Olivia was picked for the team on July 10, and her classmates managed to book 200 tickets to watch her in the heats, scheduled for the morning of Tuesday, September 4, thinking it would mean they would be guaranteed to see her run.

However, just over a week ago, the heats were cancelled and it became a straight evening final. The 200 students, who had made special banners, were booked in for the wrong session.

Initial conversations with Ticketmaster about changing to the evening session were not encouraging.

But East Hampshire MP Damian Hinds intervened and after extensive and rapid negotiations with the games organisers, 200 tickets were sourced for the evening session.

For full story, see this week's Liphook Herald.