NORTH-EAST paralympian Tanni Gray-Thompson and athlete Colin Jackson were at full stretch today as they unveiled a series of extra-long stamps to commemorate next month's Commonwealth Games.

With exactly four weeks to go until the opening ceremony, the former Commonwealth champions were at the £110 million City of Manchester Stadium to take a final look at the track where they will both be competing.

As they took a day off training to launch the stamps, the second-longest in Royal Mail's history, they spoke of the excitement already building for the next stage in a "fantastic" summer of sport.

"If there was one thing that kept me going after Sydney it was the fact that we had Manchester just around the corner," Redcar wheelchair athlete Tanni said.

She added: "People all around the country now know the Games are coming and it is really exciting."

The five stamps, which will be issued on July 16, were stretched to three times the length of ordinary postage stamps so designer Madeleine Bennett could capture the speed and excitement of some of the sports.

Each of her designs depicts a different sport with swimmers, sprinters, cyclists and wheelchair athletes all racing towards the finishing line, together with a flying long jumper.

Tanni said she was especially pleased that wheelchair athletes had been included in the stamps just as they have, for the first time, in the Games.

"I did not know until this morning that wheelchair athletes were included on the stamps. That was a tremendous surprise."

About 5,000 athletes from 71 countries will begin to descend on Manchester in the coming weeks in time for the start of the UK's largest ever multi-sports event on July 25.