Olympics: Ministers seek to boost 'patchy' sports provision

School sports provision is "patchy" and ministers want to boost participation on the back of Team GB's Olympic success, the culture secretary says.

Jeremy Hunt said ministers wanted to ensure the "best examples are spread throughout the country" and have backed an Olympic-style event for schools.

His comments come after the British Olympic Association urged more funding and a "step change" in sports policy.

Labour says coalition cuts have "destroyed" its efforts.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Hunt, said "primary schools is where it all starts and catching people young is incredibly important" but he accepted pupils faced "an element of luck", for example in terms of having an inspirational teacher.

"At the moment school sport provision is patchy in some places and we need to do what we can to make sure that the very best examples are spread throughout the whole country and this is absolutely going to be a focus over the next few months and one of the things we really want to take away from these Games," he said.

The Department for Education allocates funding for school sports provision in England, while the devolved administrations take on the responsibility in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

In other developments:

The weekend saw Team GB pick up eight gold medals after wins for the likes of Andy Murray in tennis and Jessica Ennis in the heptathlon.

At a news conference, Lord Moynihan said inspiration needed to be "translated into participation".

He accused successive governments of "treading water" and said the coalition had to "step up to the mark" in ensuring a sports participation legacy so that the BOA could help develop young talent "and ultimately see the very best of them shining on the Olympic stage in the future".

But Mr Hunt told the BBC the fact Team GB was currently third in the Olympics medals table showed funding model of sport through National Lottery set up by the Tories in the 1990s had been a "great successes".

He said "other countries are now looking at the UK and looking at our sport funding model and seeing what they can learn".

He said the School Games, which saw primaries and secondaries from across the UK compete against each other at the Olympic Park in May, attracted about half of all schools.

Former sports minister Richard Caborn said Lord Moynihan had overlooked Labour's investment in sport.

"He is not acknowledging the work that was put in over the last decade," he said. "We put money into school sports and we invested money in elite sport and UK Sport. That has got us where we are."

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said a man arrested at the Olympic Stadium after the 100m final had been heard shouting abuse and was then seen throwing a bottle. It landed behind the sprinters.

Nobody was injured and the event was not disrupted, police said.

Dutch judo bronze medallist Edith Bosch has claimed on Twitter that she had apprehended the person who threw the bottle, although police have stated they were not aware of this.

The suspect is being held in police custody at an east London police station on suspicion of causing a public nuisance.