Hi, hope all is well, this will be my 5th Olympic report, trying to offer you something you don't see on TV or in the newspapers, they are full of who won the gold etc, so let me try to give the other side of the coin. If you missed a report, please let me know, as a few have not arrived ok ???
My photos this time are from the "Water Cube". I was amazed getting off the athletes bus, walking along the side of the National Aqua Center, just how huge it was, look at the people, then how tall this thing is....
Another shot is the diving platform, very pretty, and from what I hear works well too...
The next is a view you can get on TV, the audience seated, 8 swimmers in the pool...
Now look at the photo of the training pool, not open to the public view. It's like a busy pool during the school holidays. How they warm up ok, I have no idea...
This evening I just saw Michael Phelps swim his 100m Butterfly heat, his old 2004 Olympic record was 51.25 sec. so he took it easy the first 50m and was 5th at the turn, and then went up several gears to record a 50.87 sec. what can he do if he really tries....
Earlier in the evening we saw the heats of the Women's 800m Freestyle, that's 16 times up and down the pool, a long way to swim going as fast as you can. The British girl, Cassy Patten set a new Olympic record of 8mins, 18.55sec, beating the old record of 8mins 19.67. Guess who is rather proud, and being 9th out of 205 Countries in the medal count is very good for a tiny island full of strange folk.....
The past few days have been very interesting, from sitting in the VIP seats with the Sri Lankan Ambassador chatting & watching boxing, to attending a meeting of all Technical Delegates for the Athletics (Track & Field) that start tomorrow (Fri 15th) Our athletic coach does not speak much English, and as a past track athlete, judge & organizer of a UK state (province) athletic championship, I was next in line......
Add to this some three-hour in the Poly Clinic, with our badminton player, who suffers from breathing problems, but only when she gets a cold, and her medicine, contains a small amount of a banned drug. So she has to take a test to claim an exception.
Which she did back in Sri Lanka, but the doctor forgot to add the make of the equipment used and the strength of the test drug.... So she needed to be re-tested, however there was real concern, that if she took the test again, that if she was given a radmon drug test, she would be positive, and get banned not only from the Olympics, but everywhere for at least two years...
But, we got it solved ok, she player her match as her world ranking was 131st, she lost to a girl who was ranked 75th in the world. This may seem a bit sad, that she only got to play one game of 3 sets, and got knocked out of the Beijing Games. However she did write her name into the history of Sri Lanka, as the first woman ever to represent the country in this sport at an Olympics......
Just how many of us, would be very proud to be the first ever to represent your Country at anything, let alone the Olympics Games.
Just before I set off to cheer our swimmer in the mens 50 m freestyle, I had to take our two track athletes uniforms to the Sports Info Center, to have them photographed, thus insuring they complied with the rule #51.
Any trade mark on a garment is limited to a certain size. (At the weight liffing a liffer had masking tape stuck pver a offening trade markon his shorts) This is to ensure that if your company pours millions of US$'s in to being an official sponsor, someone else can not get the credit on a TV close up.
However, I think they have gone a bit crazy this time. On a visit to the any bathroom, be it in the village or any competion venue, all the American Standard white porciline, wash basins etc, have little white stickers over the name...... Why build all these brand new venues with a product you have to put a lable on....
Thanks for your letters and remarks, the photo of me with the torch yesterday, got the most emails.............. I wonder why.
Take care,
David
I'm starting to get real jealous!!! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment