倫敦奧運倒計時500天 倒計時鐘意外停擺

London Olympic organisers were left red-faced on Tuesday when a huge clock in Trafalgar Square marking the countdown to the 2012 Games stopped just hours after being unveiled at a glitzy cereMony。

The steel digital clock measuring 6.5 metres tall and five metres long froze with 500 days, 7 hours, 6 minutes and 56 seconds to go before the start of the Games。

It had been unveiled on Monday by London Olympic organising committee (LOCOG) chairman Sebastian Coe and four British Olympic gold medallists, coinciding with 6.6 million Games tickets going on sale。

"We are obviously very disappointed that the clock has suffered this technical issue," a spokesman for Swiss watchmakers Omega said in a statement。

However, a LOCOG spokeswoman laughed off the malfunction, adding "it is not our clock."

Trafalgar Square is where Londoners gathered in 2005 to hear their city announced as winning bidders。

Omega said the clock, with its unique design for 2012, had been developed by experts and fully tested ahead of its launch。

"We are currently looking into why this happened and expect to have the clock functioning as normal as soon as possible," a spokesman added。

The clock's design draws heavily on the geometric lines of the 2012 logo and Greenwich Mean Time, organisers said。

Omega will also provide the timepieces for the Games, as they have done since 1932.

For more Bilingual News, please log on to our website at . For now, this has been。英國倫敦本週二舉辦了隆重的2012年奧運倒計時鐘揭幕儀式，而僅在數小時後，矗立在特拉法加廣場的巨型倒計時鐘意外停擺。倫敦奧組委官員可謂顏面盡失。

這座數字顯示式時鐘由鋼材料製成，高6.5米，寬5米，突然停在了奧運倒計時第500天7小時6分56秒。

本週一，倫敦奧組委主席塞巴斯蒂安•科和四位英國奧運冠軍共同爲倒計時鐘揭幕。660萬張奧運會門票也開始發售。

倒計時鐘製造商、瑞士歐米茄公司的發言人發表聲明稱：“倒計時鐘停擺，我們感到很失望。”

但倫敦奧組委的一位女發言人卻對這個故障一笑置之，補充說：“它不是我們的鐘表。”

2005年，倫敦市民正是聚集在特拉法加廣場，聽到了倫敦申辦奧運成功的喜訊。

歐米茄公司稱，這座倒計時鐘由專家研發，專爲2012年倫敦奧運設計，在揭幕前已進行全面檢測。

一位發言人補充說：“我們正在調查故障原因，希望它能儘快正常工作。”

倫敦奧組委官員稱，倒計時鐘的外觀汲取了2012年倫敦奧運會徽以及本初子午線標誌的特徵。

歐米茄公司還將爲倫敦奧運提供計時器。自1932年起該公司就爲多屆奧運會提供計時器。