I want to ride my............

Yesterday was the first occasion in this Olympics when it occurred to me that we are entering the closing stretch of the Games.  Every day so far, I have lived for the moment of the day, with the overriding view that the event will still exist into the longer term.  As my ticket yesterday was for the last session of the Track Cycling, it made me think that we will soon be experiencing the last day of several other significant sports.

In the months when I was a ticket-hunter, yesterday’s session was always in the top 2 or 3 of my wanted list, for the entire Games.  There was a genuine chance of 3 GB Gold Medals in the session, which I wasn’t expecting to witness any other time (as it happened, I have already achieved that milestone in the Athletics stadium last Saturday)...

Why are Track Cycling tickets so sought-after?  Well, the Athletics Stadium has 80,000 seats and 15 sessions, meaning an availability of 1.2million seats during the Games.  The Velodrome has just 6,000 seats and 9 sessions, so there were just 54,000 opportunities to attend the Cycling.  I was very very pleased to get 4 of those 54,000 tickets in my name.

Yesterday’s session, as well as being the last to take place at that venue, was also a chance to see a true British Sporting great in Sir Chris Hoy (or... simply... “Chris Hoy”... as the IOC calls him)...  I remember a British TV programme from a few years ago, where people voted for the 100 Greatest moments in Sporting History.  Number 1, ahead even of England’s World Cup win, was Sir Steve Redgrave’s 5th Olympic Gold Medal, from Sydney. Yesterday, I had the honour of seeing Sir Chris surpass Sir Steve in a joust of the knights, and take his 6th Gold Medal.

Again, I will call out the influence of the crowd in making this an unforgettable occasion.  There was a moment on the last lap of Hoy’s race when he appeared to be in line for defeat.  Then, he found a final burst of pace, willed on by a passionate crowd, and reached the line first.

It was also a great day for the next generation of British Cycling, as Laura Trott took a thrilling Gold Medal in the last seconds of the Omnium event – again, willed on by a passionate home support.... and, on the topic of the support, everywhere I have gone in London for these past two weeks, everyone has been talking about the Olympics.  Passengers on packed trains are busy looking for the latest results in the newspapers or on their Smartphones.  Union flags are either worn on clothing or carried around.  This fine city truly is gripped with Olympic fever.

I have also been to see another new venue – the Riverbank Arena – which is used for the Field Hockey competition.  One of my earliest Olympic memories is from Seoul in 1988, when the Great Britain Men’s Hockey team won the Gold Medal, beating Germany in the final.  I still remember Barry Davies’s iconic commentary... “where WERE the Germans?...... but, frankly... who cares?”, and it was a pleasure for me to be attending a Hockey match here in London for which Davies, now aged 74, was providing the TV commentary, no more than 50 yards away from me.

I know that there are some American visitors to this Blog, so this photo is just for you......

The final game of the day saw Team GB take on the Netherlands.  GB’s captain, Kate Walsh, suffered a broken jaw last week, and has had a titanium plate fitted to it, however she still took up her place in the centre of the GB defence, and played the full game.  In contrast, most £100k per week Premiership footballers would take a month off with a broken fingernail...

Lastly, some sad news, as Olympic fan Conrad Readman sadly died at the Velodrome during last Friday’s finals.  Conrad had bought tickets for all 17 days of the Games, and was half way through his Olympic odyssey, when he suffered a fatal heart attack.  Rest In Peace, Conrad.

......Long to Reign Over Us, God Save the Queen

............ok, so at the end of the day’s action on Saturday 4th August 2012, I headed to the Athletics Stadium, for what proved to be an unforgettable evening for Team GB.

My expectation going into the evening was that a Gold Medal for Jessica Ennis was a formality – assuming she didn’t fall in the final event of the Heptathlon.  A further Gold Medal for Mo Farah would have put the icing on the cake... but would he be able to hold off the African runners?

The Long Jump competition also took place, but, despite the absence of Dwight Phillips through injury and Irving Saladino through failing to qualify, I only had a vague hope of maybe Bronze for one of the two British athletes in that event.

Timing is a very important thing in sport.  Greg Rutherford’s Gold Medal winning Long Jump was timed to such perfection, that the distance displayed on the screens AT THE VERY SAME SECOND as Jessica Ennis was announced to the crowd, for her race.  Two big cheers for the price of one...  Jessica’s Gold was expected.  Greg’s was a huge huge bonus, to the already-excited crowd.

Jessica's victory was very pleasing to witness - especially after her injury heartache at the last Olympics.  She has been one of the poster girls of this Olympics, and I really admire her warm personality (yes, yes, and her good looks, yes)......

And then we had the 10,000m.  The first 23 laps were, at times tense, as Mo let a breakaway group establish, only to calmly reel in that group, and he finally got to the head of the race as it moved into his territory – the final 2 laps.  Here is where the patriotism in the stadium reached a crescendo.  80,000 people screamed vociferously for Mo on those final two laps, as he held off the brave challenge of his American training partner, to achieve immortality, and a third Team GB Gold in barely 45 minutes.

Where does the evening rank on the list of all-time great moments in British sport?  Well, I’d put it ahead of the 2003 Rugby World Cup win – that was just England, rather than Britain, and was not in a sport that is popular in the whole world.  Presumably it ranks behind the 1966 Football World Cup Final, but that was again just England, and two generations have passed since that day.  Wherever the night ranks on the list, I will remember for the rest of my life that I WAS THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!

A few videos:

Jessica’s last lap:

Jessica’s National Anthem:

Mo’s Last Lap (turn the volume up high on this one!!):

...I mean, of course the evening was nowhere near as exciting as the 0-0 draw between South Korea and Gabon from the other day......

Send her Victorious, Happy and Glorious......

Inhale.  Exhale.  Inhale.  Exhale.  Ok...

When I set up the concept of this Blog, I envisaged that, at some point, I’d add a patriotic post, promoting the efforts of Team GB.  That post would, typically, have arisen in the event that we had won, maybe, 2 Gold Medals in one session, or 3 Gold Medals in one day.

What I have witnessed over the past 3 days, both in person and on the TV, has dwarfed that initial expectation.  Dwarfed to the extent that I’ve got too much information to fit into one Blog post.  I’ll try to fit everything into two posts, although prepare for some Tolstoy-like reading.

So, Friday... I went to the Velodrome, which was the only Olympic Park venue I’d previously attended prior to The Games.  Consistent with my memories from my Test Event cisit, it is a closely packed venue, with all spectators positioned closer to the action, to generate a deafening noise.

For many years, Great Britain was not renowned as an elite Track Cycling country.  I remember the turning point in this history – the Barcelona Olympics of 1992 – when Chris Boardman rode his revolutionary Lotus bike to a Gold Medal in the individual pursuit.  In the ensuing two decades, the performance of GB in this sport has progressively improved, to the point of being universally recognised as the foremost country in the Track Cycling world.

The catalyst for the current domination is Dave Brailsford – the Performance Director of British Cycling.  In my opinion, Brailsford’s leadership is as strong as, if not better than, any coach in the history of British sport.  He is in the same class as leaders such as Alf Ramsay, Alex Ferguson and Clive Woodward.

My expectations upon arriving at the Velodrome on Friday were still, however, driven by caution.  There had been a GB disqualification the previous day for a technical infringement, and for all the ideals of practice, practice, practice, surely some element of sporting luck was needed to attain success.

The first event on track was the preliminary round of the Women’s Team Pursuit.  The purpose of this round was to reduce the 10 participating countries down to 8, in readiness for the following day’s action, so this was unlikely to be the most thrilling of events.  When Team GB took to the track, however, they delivered a spirited ride, to break the World Record for the event.

Here are the spectators, providing a Mexican Wave, in unison with the cyclists:

Next up was the first medal race of the day, the Men’s Team Pursuit.  Here is a video which I shot, of the closing stages of that race, as Team GB surged to a Gold Medal – the video is best viewed with the volume turned up to the maximum:

 

 

Lastly, it was the inaugural Olympic Women’s Keirin.  For all of Victoria Pendleton’s achievements in Sprint competitions, her Keirin record is comparatively modest – just the one World Championship Gold Medal, from 5 years ago.  I remember being present at this event at the same venue during the Olympic Test event, and Vicky finished outside of the places on that occasion.

Vicky is, quite rightly, a very popular athlete with the British public, and has battled many personal demons to get to where she is today.  The atmosphere for this event, therefore, unsurprisingly surpassed what was heard during the previous races.  Vicky took the lead with over a lap to go, and proceeded to ride around the final lap in first position, to a cacophony of noise from the fans.  As you will have seen from the front pages of the newspapers the following morning, Queen Vic completed a perfect session for GB...

Also a word for the performances of the GB Rowers at Eton Dorney on Saturday morning... I wasn’t present to see the two Gold Medals, but again, this was the perfect storm of technical ability plus an inspirational crowd.  The one blip in that session was Mark Hunter & Zac Purchase, being beaten into 2nd place, having led for most of their final.  Their BBC interview after that race was heartbreaking to watch.

There was an Athletics session contested yesterday as well, don't you know (to be continued)............

Duel in the Pool

When I was making my list of “wants” for Olympic tickets, one of the events close to the top of that list was the final of the Men’s 200m Individual Medley, in the Aquatic Centre, which pitted Olympic legend Michael Phelps against his long-time rival Ryan Lochte.

Coming into this Olympics, Phelps was already the holder of a scarcely-credible 14 Olympic Gold medals.  Lochte, on the other hand, was portrayed by many sections of the media as the “new kid on the block” (errantly, as it happens... Lochte is actually 11 months older than Phelps)...

I was working in the USA the week before the Games, and everywhere I looked, there were magazine covers/posters/advertisements, showing Lochte as their poster boy – typically clad in just his briefs... (he is no Jessica Ennis, I’ll say that much)......  On paper, Lochte HAD to win this race – he has had superiority over Phelps for some months, and comprehensively outwitted him in the 400m IM, earlier in the week.

I’m pleased to report that this race was not contested on paper, but was contested in water...

From the first buzzer, Phelps stormed into the lead, roared on by a raucous, partisan crowd.  A crowd who, realistically, had believed that they would never again see the most successful ever Olympian win an individual Gold, were treated to a majestic masterclass of medley, by the magnificent maestro Michael !!

It was a genuine privilege for me, to be present when Phelps won that Gold medal. Furthermore, 24 hours later, I was at the Aquatic Centre again, as he won the 100m butterfly.  He is retiring from the sport after this evening’s medley relay, and will be talked about by future generations a true all-time sporting great.

Minority Report

Here in the UK, the most frequently televised sports are generally Football, Cricket, Rugby and F1 - all steeped in tradition, and also rife with money.  During the Olympics, the TV coverage tends to veer towards a few mainstream sports – typically Athletics, Swimming and Cycling – and my other blog posts will cover my experiences at those events.  Over the past few days however, I have been to see some sports which, whilst popular in other countries, are still considered minority sports in the country.

Firstly, Handball, which is fast developing a reputation as one of the success stories of the Games.  I had never seen a Handball game, before this week, and did not know the rules.  It is played (until the middle of next week) in the Copper Box, which is a colourful amphitheatre, in the heart of the Olympic Park.  I bought these tickets on the recomendation of a very close friend from Scandinavia, who considers Handball as her number 1 favourite sport.

My experience at Handball was a very positive one – I found it to be a fast-moving sport, with straightforward rules, and which has the potential to appeal to the masses.  Of course, the newly created Team GB was far inferior to the other participants, but I think that the potential exists for a sustainable programme of coaching in that sport, for this country.

The spectator experience for Handball was amongst the best I’ve witnessed all week.  Fans of the various competing countries were present, in their national colours, with their flags.  Also, despite the inevitable defeat, Team GB was supported by a legion of passionate sports fans.  I’m sure that if tiddlywinks were to become a London2012 Olympic sport, this same crowd would still support it with the same level of fervour.

I also attended the semi-finals and final of the Men’s Table Tennis tournament.  In China, this sport is huge, and, predictably, the final pitted two Chinese players against one another.  Again, this was a very popular event with the fans.

It is important to understand and acknowledge that, for us fans, a trip to a session such as this one is a relaxing day out and a bit of fun.  For the competitors, however, it represents the culmination of several years of training – often in very unglamorous locations – and essentially represents one of the most important days in the lives of these guys.  To win an Olympic Gold medal represents the pinnacle of a career, and the realisation of a dream.

I leave you for today with a video I shot of Zhang Jike, the Table Tennis Gold medallist, as he realised his lifelong dream before our very eyes – winning the final point, then hurdling the perimeter of the playing area, and bowing down to kiss the Gold Medal step of the winners rostrum.  To me, this conveys far more feeling than anything an overpaid footballer could ever display...

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

In any Olympic Games there will exist truly iconic moments, which will leave indelible images in the minds of all those people who attended.  Yesterday I experienced the true privilege of witnessing one of these iconic moments...

...yes, indeed... I was there, in person, to witness the thrilling 0-0 draw between South Korea U23s and Gabon U23s at Men’s Football...  who needs Bolt, Phelps, Hoy et al, when you’ve got Sung-Ryong Jung and Merlin Tandjigora to entertain you?!!  ;-)

Oh ok then – maybe I saw a slightly more iconic moment yesterday.  Maybe, just maybe, I was there in person to witness Team GB’s first Gold Medal of the games.  Let’s have a look at the following video (sponsored by the Steve Taylor academy of quality videos), so that you can see what I saw, sometime around noon yesterday:

This was my solitary trip of the Games to an out-of-town venue, and I left the house yesterday morning at 6:30am to make my way out to Eton Dorney (having only got to bed at 1am the previous night).  I liked Dorney as a venue – of course the infrastructure was far less regimented than at the larger venues, and a lot of walking is needed – a LOT of walking – but this was more than compensated by the spectator experience.

When I bought that ticket, I had a reasonable idea that Helen Glover and Heather Stanning would contend for Gold.  What I hadn’t factored in would that GB would be sat on zero Gold medals prior to the event – I’d assumed that Mark Cavendish would win our first Gold Medal back on Day One, and that that would be that.  So, just 5 days on from the goosebumps moment of the Olympic Ceremony, this was my second goosebumps moment of these Games.

A few other photos of a very patriotic day:

After this, it was on to Wembley Stadium for the aforementioned South Korea U23s vs Gabon U23s match.  This game was, incredibly, attended by 77,000 spectators (five times the attendance as for last night’s Swimming Finals).

This Football ticket was my first purchase from the original LOCOG ticket ballot.  At that time, and before I'd worked out the nuances of purchasing tickets from other EU countries, I didn’t want to miss out on Olympic Tickets altogether, so made a “safe” purchase, for an event where I knew that supply of tickets would exceed demand.  At that moment, it was still “Unknown Team A” versus “Unknown Team B”, and I bought the tickets in the hope that, being played at the National stadium, one of the top teams would be assigned to the game.

A few people have asked me why I didn’t forego the tickets when my ticket-holding sky-rocketed, and it became apparent that top teams would not be involved.  The answer is simply that I was attending the game with my best friends, and this was (at the time) their only ticket for the Games, so I didn’t want to let them down.  Amongst the tickets that I’ve got for the Games, a few are single tickets, whilst for the majority I have attended / will be attending with various friends, and, as you would expect, the latter option is the better experience!

I noticed on Tuesday that I got 100+ hits to the blog in a single day for the first time.  I’m amazed it has even exceed 10+ hits!!

Lastly, and on the basis that I left you with La Marseillaise last time, here, at long last, is God Save The Queen, Buckinghamshire style...  Enjoy......

Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink

6 Blog posts now made, and one thing has not yet appeared in my posts.  Well, ok, two things, if we count my lack of interesting stories.  Or, indeed, three things, if we count my lack of anything remotely amusing...  But no, what those first 6 posts have lacked is a first-hand view of a gold medal winning performance. This is about to change now.

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Diving and Swimming events in the Aquatic Centre.  Firstly, the Men’s Highboard Diving.  Ever since the games were awarded to London in 2005 (and, to some extent, before that), Devon’s Tom Daley has been viewed as the “poster boy” of the event, as the media has relentlessly tracked his metamorphosis from boy to teen to man.  Yesterday was his moment of truth, as he partnered Pete Waterfield in the synchronised diving event – Waterfield beating off a charge from Manchester United's Ashley Young, to seal that selection berth as one of the nation's Top 2 divers.

Anyway, I’m not well versed in the scoring system of Diving.  I know now that the first two dives are immaterial from a scoring standpoint, almost to the point of being ceremonial.  I didn’t know that yesterday, and cheered raucously when Tom & Pete stormed to the top of the leaderboard at that stage, by a margin of something like 0.4 of a point.

Here are a couple of my still shots of Tom & Pete, followed by a video of their 2nd dive.  Try to watch the video with the volume turned up, and listen to the reaction of the crowd.

Anyway, back to Tom’s story... for these past 7 years the nation has been in waiting, expecting that his golden moment would surely come, right here in London.  During his & Pete’s 4th dive yesterday, the 7 year dream was brought to a shuddering halt, in the space of a second.  Tom over-rotated.  Pete under-rotated.  The crowd knew it was game over.  The judges confirmed this reality.

And, to all intents and purposes, that was that.  Tom & Pete will doubtless have successfully executed that particular dive thousands of times in training – but, when sitting atop the Olympic leaderboard, something went marginally wrong.  One of my favourite sports journalists is the ex-Table Tennis player Matthew Syed (someone who I’ve had the privilege of seeing deliver a talk in person).  In Syed’s acclaimed book, “Bounce”, he discusses the pressures and psychology of competitive sport at the highest level.  What happened in Tom & Pete’s 4th dive yesterday was driven by pressure - simple as that.

Some sections of the UK media seem to only be focusing on the 4th place finishers from that event.  Myself, I prefer to include something also, about the gold medallists.  Tom wasn’t the only teen competing yesterday – the Chinese teens, Cao Yuan and Zhang Yanquan, were in action also, and delivered six flawless dives, to take a deserved gold medal.  My next video shows Cao & Zhang’s sixth and final dive:

Next to Swimming, and a great example of British patriotism from the spectators.  The life of a swimmer generally consists of 6am training sessions, seven days per week, in something close to solitary confinement.  Those competing at the very top level generally need to take early nights, and abstain from alcohol – at least in the lead-up to competition time.  Even when racing in competitions, the venues can sometimes be sparsely populated.

During yesterday’s action, whenever the name of a British swimmer was announced, the spectators responded with a deafening cheer – demonstrating hugely patriotic fervour for their new-found heroes.  Put yourself in the shoes of the British swimmers yesterday, and try to envisage the binary nature of the existence, shifting from the solitary confinement of the regular routine, up to the realisation of stepping as a gladiator, into an colosseum where 15,000 people are chanting “Liam, Liam, Liam”, or “Robbie, Robbie, Robbie”, or “Hannah, Hannah, Hannah”... this shift in normality will have been a life-defining experience for all of the British swimmers involved. 

Here is a video illustration of the Men’s 100m Backstroke final, which included another Devon athlete, Liam Tancock.  Around the mid-point of the race, it looked as though Liam could break the US monopoly in this event.  The response of the crowd was feverish, and made for a wonderful amphitheatre of noise.  Alas, Liam did not win a medal, but with British gold medal prospects such as Ellen Gandy and Rebecca Adlington still to compete, later in the week, they are sure to be given a reception like never before:

One of the performances of the Games so far came from 15-year old Ruta Meilutyte – Lithuanian by birth, but YET ANOTHER Devon athlete (the third to be mentioned in this post).  Ruta won Gold in the Women’s 100m breaststroke in style, comprehensively defeating the favoured American, Australian and Russian competitors:

I’ll end this post with a National Anthem.  I would have loved it to be God Save The Queen, but for now, La Marseillaise will need to suffice – played for Yannick Agnel, after his victory in the Men’s 200m Freestyle:

Hands up anyone who drifted into The Beatles’ All You Need Is Love, during that video......