The Rio 2016 Organising Committee will release this Thursday (21 April) a new batch of tickets for the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony and some of the blue riband athletics events of the Olympic Games. Tickets will be available from midday (local time). Ticket holders could see Jamaican star Usain Bolt in the finals of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay and witness other history-making moments in person.

Overseas fans must buy tickets from the authorised ticket reseller (ATR) in their territory. Click here to find out who is the ATR in your country.

Tickets in all price categories are being released, for Brazilian residents only. They are among a total of 1.2 million new tickets that will be made available over the coming months as seating plans in Olympic venues are finalised. From this week, the Rio 2016 Organising Committee will release new batches of tickets on Thursdays, always at midday, some for events that were previously unavailable.

"There will soon be new opportunities to buy tickets for events and sports where there is high demand"

Donovan Ferreti, Rio 2016 ticket director

So far, 62 per cent of tickets for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games have been sold. The sports with the highest demand are football, basketball, volleyball, athletics and handball.