TELEVISION star Jeff Stelling is returning to his Hartlepool roots to help unveil a milestone in The Tall Ships' Races.
The star of Channel Four's Countdown and Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday will be in town to officially mark 400 days to go until the races arrive.
He has agreed to unveil an official Tall Ships' countdown clock.
It will be mounted at Hartlepool's Maritime Experience and will be unveiled on Friday, July 3, the day that Hartlepool reaches 400 days to go the event.
The Lightning Seeds will be the headline music act for a two-day, free family festival Dockfest, which starts the following day.
Surveys show that people across the rest of Teesside could well be among the one million people planning to come to Hartlepool in 2010.
Sixty six per cent of people in Stockton and 61 per cent in Middlesbrough know about the event and are planning to come. These surveys were carried out late last year.
The races will be highlighted further when Tall Ships banners are erected soon on the lamp columns at the Headland and Stranton.
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