I was lucky enough to get a ticket to see an evening of athletics in the Olympic Stadium on 9 August during the Olympic Games and I was rewarded with Usain Bolt and David Rushida making headlines. There were no TeamGB medals that evening but I didn't mind, I was at the Olympics!
I made sure I got to the Olympic Park early so I could take a look round in the sunshine and that place is big. Half a dozen different venues within the Park and the place full of happy, excited people from all over the world and I was one of them. I'd promised myself a healthy meal of chips and beer but you could only buy chips with fish which is no use to me so I had Mexican and diet Coke instead. There were good natured queues everywhere, including to get into the souvenir shops, and some venues were starting new sessions and others were finishing, so there were people everywhere. And the sun shone brightly.
As it got closer to 6:00pm I thought I'd better take my seat and get settled for the 6:30pm start. I crossed Bridge D, climbed the stairs to Block 254, found Row 41 and sat down in Seat 726. And what a view I had! The 100m started right below where I was sitting and I had an excellent view of the finishing line. The other side of the Stadium to my left was set up for the hop, skip and jump competition, ahead was laid out for spears and to my right was the podium and the flagpoles. I was thrilled.
The evening started off with the final two evens of the men's decathlon and began with the spears (aka javelin) and the Cuban lad had an amazingly long throw that went way beyond the last line painted on the grass. I don't know why but I get strangely excited by spears and I suspect it's something primal at work in the back of my mind.
The triple jump lads came on in their tracksuits to warm up and started walking up to the sand and jumping in. I assume they were testing the consistency of the sand or something, but they reminded me of kids in the playground jumping from a standing start into the sand. We had heats of the women's 800m and the women's 4x100m. The decathlon lads did two heats of the 800m to close their event and then did a lap of honour to great cheers. We also had a few medal ceremonies from competitions earlier in the day and, much to my joy, the evening finished with women's spears!
The first of the big races was the men's 800m, with Andrew Osagie representing TeamGB and David Rushida for Kenya. We all know the result and David set a new World Record that was a great thrill to witness first hand. Andrew came 8th - I refuse to say last since he set a personal best in that race and his time would have won him Gold in the three previous Olympic Games. That's not bad at all.
Of course, a certain Mr Usain Bolt was also running in a later race, the 200m men's final, and he succeeded in getting most of the publicity for his amazing win. The race started just over from where I was sitting so I could see him go through his preparations, his ungainly start and then his easy win - from where I was sitting he was quite obviously ahead of the rest of the field. He then did his lap of honour that went on for ages because everyone wanted to meet him, take his photo and, let's face it, he's a showman and he milked it. And he was great to see!
I stayed for the women's spears and cheered even louder as other people left after seeing Mr Bolt. It was a wonderful evening and a great atmosphere in the Stadium, everyone excited, oohing and aaahing as we watched personal triumphs, clapping and cheering the winners and the non-winners alike. The decathlon bloke from, I think, Belarusse who came final in the 800m by about half a lap got an enormous roar of encouragement as he pounded the track determined to finish and he did.
A day of wonderful memories ended with leaving the Olympic Park in the warm darkness of an August night, heading to Stratford to get the train home with a big smile on my face and ideas juggling round behind my eyes. I'll be going back during the Paralympics. Try keeping me away!
I made sure I got to the Olympic Park early so I could take a look round in the sunshine and that place is big. Half a dozen different venues within the Park and the place full of happy, excited people from all over the world and I was one of them. I'd promised myself a healthy meal of chips and beer but you could only buy chips with fish which is no use to me so I had Mexican and diet Coke instead. There were good natured queues everywhere, including to get into the souvenir shops, and some venues were starting new sessions and others were finishing, so there were people everywhere. And the sun shone brightly.
As it got closer to 6:00pm I thought I'd better take my seat and get settled for the 6:30pm start. I crossed Bridge D, climbed the stairs to Block 254, found Row 41 and sat down in Seat 726. And what a view I had! The 100m started right below where I was sitting and I had an excellent view of the finishing line. The other side of the Stadium to my left was set up for the hop, skip and jump competition, ahead was laid out for spears and to my right was the podium and the flagpoles. I was thrilled. The evening started off with the final two evens of the men's decathlon and began with the spears (aka javelin) and the Cuban lad had an amazingly long throw that went way beyond the last line painted on the grass. I don't know why but I get strangely excited by spears and I suspect it's something primal at work in the back of my mind.
The triple jump lads came on in their tracksuits to warm up and started walking up to the sand and jumping in. I assume they were testing the consistency of the sand or something, but they reminded me of kids in the playground jumping from a standing start into the sand. We had heats of the women's 800m and the women's 4x100m. The decathlon lads did two heats of the 800m to close their event and then did a lap of honour to great cheers. We also had a few medal ceremonies from competitions earlier in the day and, much to my joy, the evening finished with women's spears!
The first of the big races was the men's 800m, with Andrew Osagie representing TeamGB and David Rushida for Kenya. We all know the result and David set a new World Record that was a great thrill to witness first hand. Andrew came 8th - I refuse to say last since he set a personal best in that race and his time would have won him Gold in the three previous Olympic Games. That's not bad at all.
Of course, a certain Mr Usain Bolt was also running in a later race, the 200m men's final, and he succeeded in getting most of the publicity for his amazing win. The race started just over from where I was sitting so I could see him go through his preparations, his ungainly start and then his easy win - from where I was sitting he was quite obviously ahead of the rest of the field. He then did his lap of honour that went on for ages because everyone wanted to meet him, take his photo and, let's face it, he's a showman and he milked it. And he was great to see!I stayed for the women's spears and cheered even louder as other people left after seeing Mr Bolt. It was a wonderful evening and a great atmosphere in the Stadium, everyone excited, oohing and aaahing as we watched personal triumphs, clapping and cheering the winners and the non-winners alike. The decathlon bloke from, I think, Belarusse who came final in the 800m by about half a lap got an enormous roar of encouragement as he pounded the track determined to finish and he did.
A day of wonderful memories ended with leaving the Olympic Park in the warm darkness of an August night, heading to Stratford to get the train home with a big smile on my face and ideas juggling round behind my eyes. I'll be going back during the Paralympics. Try keeping me away!
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