Locog's Ms Brock-Doyle said the welding had broken "on one seat at Eton Dorney and on a couple of other seats at the hockey so Games organisers have checked all the seats provided by the contractor to temporary venues".

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Back on the stretch of freshly paved road, the team's ironmonger wiped his sweaty palms on his thick leather apron, then retrieved a lunch box from the bullock-cart piled with welding gear and scrambled up the slope to get a better view of the proceedings.

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