A Norfolk village is demonstrating its wealth of Olympic spirit by staging a packed programme of events, 12 months to go before the London games.

Thousands of residents and visitors descended on Hethersett's playing field yesterday for a Sport in the Park event for families to try more than 20 different Olympic sports.

The village open weekend will conclude with a two mile fun run today, attended by former marathon runner Paul Evans, and a last night of the proms in the church at 7.30pm tonight.

Organisers hope that the success of Hethersett's Olympic weekend will convince organisers of the London 2012 Olympic torch relay to come through the village on its way from Peterborough to Norwich on July 3 next year.

An estimated 1,500 people attended the Sport in the Park event with participants trying their hand at tennis, volley ball, hockey, martial arts, rowing and a host of other activities.

Shane Hull, chairman of Hethersett Parish Council's Olympic committee, said the village had proved that it had caught Olympic fever.

'Norfolk has 20 Olympic events this weekend and we are doing eight. Next year we will go into overdrive and trying for double figures.'

'Our main aim is to get the Olympic torch to come through the village in 2012 and we have been lobbying the Prime Minister and Seb Coe and local politicians and we had the relay with the 1948 torch recently, which was a great success and involved 1,000 schoolchildren and we will be gearing up for the big one next year.'

'We know the torch is coming from Peterborough to Norwich and we would really like to get on the route. We have proved today that we can organise events and there is a willingness in the village,' he said.

The village also hosted a swimming marathon at the junior school on Friday where participants swam 2,012 lengths and a Hethersett's Got Talent variety show on Friday night.