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Over 30 large panels showing some of Britain's top athletes involved in the highly anticipated will form an outdoor exhibition in Cardiff next month.

Paralympian Nathan Stephens. Photo: Bettina von Zwehl

The Road To 2012 touring exhibition features some of the highlights of one of the largest photographic commissions ever undertaken by the in London.

Photos of athletes, and other other key figures involved in staging the Olympics, will be be printed on the panels.

Welsh sitters for some of the portraits include Paralympian Nathan Stephens, who competes in the javelin and discus events, and Welsh Paralympic swimming coach Billy Pye.

Cardiff will be the first to enjoy the exhibition, with the panels taking up residence just in front of the in Cardiff Bay.

Due to its outdoor nature, the free exhibition will be open 24 hours a day for people to experience.

Photographs from the project were first seen in two exhibitions held at the National Portrait Gallery in London, Road To 2012: Setting Out In 2010 and Road To 2012: Changing Pace In 2011.

In this new touring exhibition previously unseen photographs, by new photographers working on the final commissions, will be on show on the panels when the exhibition opens.

The free outdoor exhibition will open in Cardiff on Friday 30 March and will run until Sunday 27 May 2012. It then moves on to Edinburgh and later Birmingham.

See more portraits, listen to audio clips from the photographers and find out more about the exhibition on the Road to 2012 website, .