The "Mini-Olympics" has been named one of the successful models of China's ongoing Olympic education program, according to Beijing Games organizers.

The event is the brainchild of two Chinese sports researchers and is aimed at teaching young children about Olympic sports by using rubber discusses and plastic javelins.

It is one of the highlights of the program, now in its second year.

Launched in December 2005, the Beijing Olympic education program aims to promote the Olympic Movement among 400 million young Chinese in over 400,000 schools both before and after the Beijing Games.

Working closely with China's Ministry of Education, BOCOG has set up 556 "Olympic Education Model Schools" nationwide, 200 of which are in Beijing.

Model schools have held speech, writing and painting contests, as well as Olympic knowledge contests, to involve more students, said officials.

So far, BOCOG has offered more than 1.1 million Olympics-themed textbooks nationwide for students in middle, elementary, vocational, special and international schools.

The Heart-to-Heart Partnership program, which was created as part of the education program in December 2006, provides opportunities to more than 200 elementary and middle schools based in Beijing to partner with sister schools and athletes in any country represented by a National Olympic Committee.