Full interview: Justin King and Jeremy Hunt on the 2012 School Games

The supermarket boss and the secretary of state for culture, Olympics, media and sport, appeared at a press conference at Sainsbury's Store Support Centre in Holborn yesterday to promote the initiative, which is also sponsored by Adidas.

The 2012 School Games follow on from the long-running Sainsbury's UK School Games which ran from 2006-2011. The four-day event will run in May and takes place in some of the Olympic and Paralympic venues.

Detailing Sainsbury's longstanding commitment to school sport King said: "Clearly this year is going to be a year of sport for our country. We hope that the School Games, taking place in the Olympic park in May of this year, will get much more visibility than has been the case in the past - as it should because it's our elite athletes of the future."

Also launching this year’s initiative was Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt. He said that while brands "have their own commercial interests", what the School Games aimed to do was to get more people involved with sport.

The 2012 School Games was launched yesterday with support from Olympic silver medallist Gail Emms and 2012 Paralympic hopeful Andrew Lapthorne. Young athletes from the City of London Academy in Southwark were also in attendance.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk