One of the relatively few downsides of London 2012 was anecdotal rather than statistically proven, but it was undeniable - the frustration of many grassroots operators in specific sports who were unable to gain tickets to watch those events at the Games. 

The media, both social and otherwise, was full - particularly in the days before the action got underway - of sporting followers bewailing their failure to gain desired access to the big event.

Niels de Vos, Chief Executive of London 2017, confirmed that this phenomenon - rather than the escalating series of scandalous revelations of doping and corruption at the highest levels of athletics - was what prompted the recent announcement that around 250,000 members of the “athletics family” would have first shout when it came to registering for tickets to next summer’s World Championships of the International Association of Athletics Federations and the International Paralympic Committee.

“It’s not a reaction to recent events,” he told insidethegames. “It has been in our plans since the bid was submitted - we have been working with the home countries since winning the bid in 2011 to implement this."

The ticketing innovation is a welcome piece of good news for London 2017 at a time when tensions within the board have led to the resignation of two key members - deputy chair Heather Hancock and Audit Committee chair Martin Stewart, whose departure was made public on Friday.

There has reportedly been internal dissension over the fact that the London 2017 chairman, Ed Warner, and De Vos hold the same respective positions for UK Athletics, sparking concerns over a possible conflict of interest.

It is believed that a full governance review is ongoing in conjunction with the IAAF, with results likely this week.

De Vos said he had committed to the idea of priority ticketing “back in 2012”, adding: “We are determined to ensure that those people on whom athletics relies are guaranteed the chance to attend should they wish - it is our way of saying thank you and one of the reasons why UK Athletics bid for the event.

“I am aware of quite a few people in athletics who didn’t get the chance to attend the Olympics. This will give them a great chance to attend London 2017 and the response that we have had so far has been excellent.”

The response from Lyn, who still coaches javelin at the club despite having officially retired from her job as office manager of the Midland Counties Athletics Association, is as you might expect: “For people who have given years of service to athletics to be rewarded in this way by being able to apply before other people - I thought it was wonderful,” she said.

“They also have the chance to get tickets for family members - very often it’s the families who make the sacrifice as they are away working for the clubs in the evenings or at weekend meetings.

“With London 2012, I think not just me but a lot of people I knew in the sport felt that the process of trying to get tickets was frustrating.

“Nothing was set up for you if you were in the sport, whether that meant being a club member, someone working in the café, coaching, or doing any of the other jobs that needed doing.

“This was the biggest show on earth for us, and we had to take our chance with everyone else. I applied for athletics tickets, and so did some others I knew in the sport, but as far as I know nobody got any in the ballot.”

De Vos described the ticketing opportunity for the championships that will take place consecutively in July and August next year as “a great opportunity for the very pinnacle of the sport to recognise all the fantastic work of those people on the ground who support athletics every week”, adding: “If you are a volunteer, official, coach or supporter you may be able to enter the priority purchase window which will give you first access to tickets to London 2017 before they go on sale to the general public.

“It is important to recognise the fantastic work that people do week in, week out - all over the country - to make athletics work at the grassroots level. These people really are the true heroes of athletics.”

Lyn, who looked after Olympic medallists Denise Lewis, Katharine Merry and Kelly Sotherton among her charges during 19 years as Birchfield’s women’s team manager, certainly corresponds to that description.

This 63-year-old from Hodge Hill in Birmingham was a promising athlete in her youth - and what inspired her to follow the sport was watching the 1964 Tokyo Olympics on television.

“I said to myself, I want to be involved in that sport," she said.

After joining local club Lozells Harriers as a shot putter, she finished in the top three nationally at under-17 to under-20 level, as well as taking a silver medal in the javelin at the AAA Under-17 Championships.

But after a kidney infection prevented her from training in her early 20s, she became involved in what she calls laughingly “the dark side”, completing a coaching award at what was then the British Amateur Athletic Board and then becoming involved in working at Birchfield Harriers under the direction of Dorette Nelson Neal, who had coached Diane Leather to becoming the first woman to break the five-minute barrier for the mile.

“I worked for Birchfield in many different capacities, and started coaching there in the 1990s,” she said.

“As team manager I was looking after top athletes such as Denise, Katharine and Kelly. By that time I was an England selector and had gone on England trips as an assistant manager, so I had got to know them in that environment.

“They were all very different characters, but they were all a real part of the team. Kelly was the ultimate athlete for me. She would always volunteer to do different events if you were short.

“Soon after she won her Olympic heptathlon bronze in Athens she turned out for me in a Midland League match at Stoke. She travelled on the coach with the rest of the team, and signed autographs for hundreds of kids while she was there. She ran the 100 and 200 metres on the day.”

Under Lyn’s direction, Birchfield’s women contested the European Champions Clubs Cup on three occasions -  in 1995, with Lewis and Merry in the team, in 1996, when they finished second in the B group and earned a place for Britain in the following year’s A final, and again in 2012.

 “Those were great times,” Lyn recalls. “But I think the most exciting moment of my time at Birchfield was managing the team which won the 4x100m relay at the European Relay Championships in Rennes - with a team of one sprinter, one triple jumper, one long jumper, and a young reserve making a return from injury who came in as a late replacement.”

She is still coaching four evenings a week at Birchfield, as well as being involved in weekend meetings, particularly with junior athletes. Her enthusiasm and idealism shine.

The youngest member of her javelin group is 12, although most are teenagers. “On Mondays and Wednesdays I work with disabled athletes,” she said. “I’ve got a blind athlete called Dan Evans, and two other regulars.

“Tyrone Williams won the CP [Cerebral Palsy] World Games javelin in Nottingham last year plus a silver in the shot.

“I’ve also been working with a lad from St Lucia, Emmish Prosper, who has improved a lot since he came to the club. He’s 23, but he loves working with the younger members of the group, bless him. Most of the kids are around 18.

“He threw around 61m in the Midland League, and he could get a British League place this season. He’s very ambitious.”

For Lyn, as things turned out, the frustration of London 2012 was mitigated by two strokes of good fortune - although, strictly speaking, she earned both through her years of diligent assistance in the sport she loves.

Firstly Birchfield’s former British and Commonwealth record holder in the 100m hurdles, Blondel Thompson - whose son Daniel Caines won the 2001 World Indoor 400m title - offered the club a spare ticket to the opening day of athletics, suggesting it went to the person deemed most deserving. Which, it was decided, meant Lyn.

“It was wonderful, and most unexpected,” Lyn said. “I got to see Jessica Ennis on the first day of her heptathlon, and the men’s shot and hammer qualifying.”

There was another turn of events for Lyn a few days later when she was given a brown envelope by a UK Athletics official and told: “You may not want to open this with other people around.”

“I thought I was in trouble,” she said. “So I went into the toilets to open it. And it was two tickets for the last night of the athletics. Oh my God!

“As I had two tickets, I took along one of my javelin group, Laura Radburn, who was then 24. She was beside herself at being in the Olympic stadium and watching so many great athletes in action.”

The men's javelin final provided a huge surprise as the unheralded Keshorn Walcott of Trinidad and Tobago took gold with a national record of 84.58m.

“Laura was asking me why so many of the throwers were ending up chucking themselves on the floor,” adds Lyn. “This is something that’s come into javelin in recent years. 

"So it was really good to see the gold going to someone who was what I would call a good technician, who stayed on his feet as he delivered his throw.”

Now London 2017 is carrying out that gesture by UKA on a grand basis.

“The general public will get the chance to purchase tickets later this year but this is a priority opportunity for people on the ground to get tickets first and it feels like a great thing to be able to do,” de Vos said.

“There are people at clubs who turn out every week, in all weathers, to introduce kids to athletics and we are thrilled to be able to give them the chance to attend London 2017.

“We saw how well received an idea like this was for the initial tickets for the Rugby World Cup and hope that the initiative continues for future events.

“I hope that this initiative starts a trend with other events. We may look at adopting this for further events and I hope that other sports look at this and think that this might be something for them to consider too.

“Major events are a vital part of our strategy to grow athletics in the UK. We are fantastically proud of the Anniversary Games, which saw over 100,000 people attend last summer, and our audience research clearly shows that major events inspire young people to take up the sport - not only those attending but watching on TV and engaging in the sport at a range of levels.

“We have successfully bid for the London 2017 IPC and IAAF World Championships and the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham in 2018. We are also working hard with Glasgow to try and secure the host city status for the European Indoor Championships in 2019. We believe that major events are a focal point for the sport and act as a catalyst for growth.”

Lyn, meanwhile, is already looking ahead to the potential attractions of next year’s event in the Olympic Stadium.

“For London 2017, of course, I will be hoping to see the throws,” she said. “I still know quite a few of the British athletes likely to be involved. I just think it is great for the sport that they will be competing in front of a crowd where there will be people who really know about their events.

“It will not just be a case of people turning up and saying ‘ooh there’s a world record'.

"I would love to be able to see Jess [Ennis-Hill] in action again, and maybe Katerina Johnson-Thompson. I’m also hoping Andrew Pozzi can make a comeback in the 110m hurdles - he’s been a real supporter of Midland athletics over the years.”

And there is a hint that she may yet be involved in more than spectating next summer: “I’m not a graded official, but I’ve already had an approach to help out at the Championships. Maybe I’ll get a job sweeping up!”