OLYMPIC hero Sebastian Coe met young sailors, Olympians, dignitaries, schoolchildren, volunteers and a sand sculptor on a whistle-stop tour of Weymouth and Portland.

The London Organising Committee chairman hit the ground running upon arrival at the 2012 Sailing venue on Portland yesterday morning.

He gave a brief speech to mayors, councillors and key players in the Weymouth and Portland 2012 operations group including head of Dorset 2012 Angus Campbell, chief fire officer Darren Gunter and chief constable Martin Baker.

Then Lord Coe toured the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy to experience the first day of the Skandia Sail for Gold regatta.

He was joined by triple gold medallist sailor Ben Ainslie and greeted pupils from Symondsbury Primary School taking part in the Sail for £5 scheme, run by SailLaser and funded by The Chesil Trust charity.

Eleanor Grant, aged 10, of Symondsbury, experienced sailing for the first time and loved it.

She said: “It was really fun, we’re really lucky because we can do it for £5.”

Lord Coe also met local volunteers who will be assisting with this year’s Olympic test event – the Weymouth and Portland International Regatta.

After media interviews, Lord Coe grabbed a quick sandwich in his car on route to Royal Manor Arts College where he presented headteacher Paul Green with a prestigious Get Set network plaque to recognise its Olympic values.

Lord Coe told pupils the aim of next year’s Games was to put athletes at the forefront and to inspire young people, he praised them for taking the Olympic values out into the community and watched a dance performance by pupils who recently won a Dorset Stop Smoking dance competition.

Daniel Johnson, 15, said: “It was really exciting to dance in front of Lord Coe, we watched a film of him running before he arrived and he was really fast.

“I don’t normally like speeches but he was inspirational.”

Lord Coe quizzed students about their thoughts on sport and the home Games and learnt about the school’s Olympic-inspired Tall Ship sailing twinning scheme with a London school and enterprise projects of dinghy building and bike repairs.

His final stop on his borough visit took him to Weymouth Beach where Jacqui Gisborne, regeneration and tourism officer at the borough council, showed him where the live screen and a sports arena are likely to be sited next summer.

He met sand sculptor Mark Anderson who had created a sculpture of the LOCOG logo and borough arts development Alan Rogers who showed him the deckchair public art scheme to create 500 designs ahead of 2012, as part of the south west’s Cultural Olympiad celebrations.