One disqualification, another world record and even more cheers

Our second session at the athletics gave us the men's pole vault final, the first round of the 4x100m relay and the 4x400m relay final, as well as the women's finals of the hammer, 1500m, 5000m and the 4x100m relay.

Having seen a lot of the Park yesterday and having found it rather too warm, we decided to have a later start today, so we arrived around 2pm, in time to make our way to the Park Live area to catch the BMX biking.  Whilst I have never been entirely sure that it should be an Olympic sport, it is fun to watch.

Unfortunately part of the reason I like it does seem to be because of the propensity for them to fall over, but I'm fairly sure that isn't just me that secretly hopes for a pile up - without causing any serious injury of course!

Well we certainly got a pile up this time. In one of the rounds, the second placed guy crashed, only for everyone behind to go piling into him, so the only person left upright was the guy ahead, who crossed the line wondering where everyone else was. I think everyone was OK though. 

The other sport that featured highly on the live screen was the women's bronze medal hockey match. Not being that far from the pitch itself, and there being a slight delay on the transmission, we had a bit of a heads up whenever anything good happened.

We would hear a huge cheer go up across the park, and then see Team GB score a goal. At least it made sure you didn't look away at a crucial point and miss a goal.

It was nice today to have a bit more Team GB participation, and we certainly cheered our men around the 4x100m relay.

Unfortunately it was to no avail, as we were then disqualified for messing up the baton change again. Disappointing.

We did pretty well in the men's pole vault though, which got some good cheers up, but sadly not quite into the top three for the medals.

However the biggest achievement of the evening probably had to be the USA women's team in the 4x100m relay final, as they broke another world record. Love seeing those big World Record signs flash up around the stadium.

But from world records to world firsts.  This Olympics was not only the first time the they had women's boxing, and women as part the team from every country, it was also the first time that a double amputee athlete had competed.

Oscar Pistorius was running in tonight's 4x400m in his flex-foot Cheetahs.  Whether or not he should have been allowed to was a contentious issue, and I can see why.  Whilst I do think it is great that we are recognising the abilities of people, I do wonder whether there can really be any guarantee that he is competing on a level basis with everyone else

Overall we had an excellent couple of days in the Olympic Park.  It was clear that things were well organised and though there doubtless were a few glitches behind the scenes, it was all very smooth for us visitors.  And everyone was so friendly and cheerful.  Now I just hope that this good mood can last beyond these few weeks.

Oh but there was one other thing that I especially liked.  It was great to be in the stadium and be able to see that beautiful Olympic flame.  Even from a distance, it really does look fabulous, and I was very happy to get to see it.

Three Jamaicans, one world record and a whole lot of cheering

men's 200m medal ceremony

Our first session in the Stadium was a packed evening with the last two events of the men's decathlon (which were the javelin & 1500m), the men's triple jump final, 800m final, and 200m final, and the women's 800m semis, 4x400m round one and the javelin final.

Not all of the events had a Team GB athlete involved, which was a bit of a shame, but was not really unexpected.  And what it did mean was that we could get behind the other competitors so much more.
We certainly made plenty of noise to help the decathlon guys with their javelin throws and the triple jumpers in their run ups.  Suarez soon impressed us all with his olympic best javelin throw of 76.94m, even though it wasn't enough to take him into the medals by the end of the ten events.

 And we were almost as enthusiastic for the little remote controlled minis that they used to bring back the javelins.  The javelins would be put in so that they were sticking up out of the top of the mini and be 'driven' back to the athletes.  They used them for the hammer the next day, so presumably use them for the shot and discus too.

The men's triple jump was a little disappointing not to include Phillips Idowu, but we had a great view as we were sat just in line with the sandpit.

One poor man clearly had his knee give way as he jumped and buckled in the sand in obvious pain.  The first person to him was a fellow competitor, quickly followed by the Gamesmakers and medics.  He had to be stretchered away and was a painful reminder of what athletes have to put themselves through to compete at this level.  Hope he is OK.

men's 800m start

The men's 800m final turned out to be one of the highlights of the day when David Rudisha smashed the World Record.  Everyone loved it.  When someone did this well, it didn't matter what nationality you were or they were, everyone knew that they had seen a fantastic achievement and celebrated loudly.

mens 800m finish

We did feel a little sorry for some of the athletes in the field events.  When there was no track event on, the commentators would focus on the field and we would all get behind them, but when the races were up, they did tend to take a back seat.

new men's 800m world record

We tried to still cheer everyone on, but it was nigh on impossible, and realistically, when there was a track race and two field events happening at one time, it would be difficult to know who the cheers were for anyway.  Unless there was a Team GB person, and them it was blatantly obvious and very noisy.

men's 800m medal ceremony

The ladies 4x400m relay round one was particularly good as we had Team GB to cheer on and they qualified well.  It was quite amazing to hear the way the main cheer went around the stadium alongside our runners.  Like a mexican wave, but with union jacks waving instead of arms, and much, much louder.

men's 200m start

And then of course there was the men's 200m final.  We had no one in it so could be entirely behind Team Jamaica - and let's face it, so was pretty much everyone else.  I took a photo of them as they set off and then while watching them run, I turned the camera around to the finish to take a picture of them crossing the line.
Trouble was they got there so fast, 19.32 seconds to be precise, that I didn't have time to refocus properly, so the photo is somewhat blurry!

men's 200m finish

But whatever the photo may look like, the reality was a most impressive Jamaican one, two and three.  Needless to say, the celebrations went on for a while.  We watched as Usain took a camera from one of the photographers and turned the tables.  And of course he did the 'bolt' a couple of times too.

Bolt turns photographer ...

... and doing the Bolt

Olympics tickets

Way back when the UK won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics, we decided that we would take advantage of it being in our hometown and go to see it.  We hadn't actually set a budget at that stage but, both of us had reasonably well paid jobs, so we had agreed that we would be prepared to spend quite a lot on tickets in order to get a great experience.

Of course, by the time the ticket sales process actually came around, we were already in the throes of being made redundant, had taken the decision to go travelling, and were planning our first year away.  We considered forgetting about the Olympics and saving the money, but quickly dismissed that thought.  After all, if part of our plan for travelling was to be in places when big events were happening so that we could be a part of them, why on earth wouldn't we take the opportunity of our own home Olympics.

We spent hours planning which tickets to apply for in the ballot.  We applied for our permitted twenty sessions each, but decided to try to maximize our chances for our ten favourite ones by both applying for them.   Unlike a lot of people, we weren't bothered about going to the opening or closing ceremonies.

Rather more predictably, we were keen to see some athletics, and also fancied the swimming, track cycling and gymnastics, so probably like the majority of other applicants, they formed the bulk of our application.  But we also included events like equestrian, BMX biking, hockey, table tennis, water polo and badminton, which we thought might be generally less sought after.  And of course we wanted to try to go to some finals, trying to get a balance of our personal favorite events with those where Team GB had a chance of making it into the finals and maybe even winning a medal.

In terms of price, we decided that if we were going to have a decent chance of going to some good events, we had to be prepared to spend a lot of money, and set ourselves a shockingly high budget of £5000.  And then because we knew that we had no chance of getting everything we applied for, we actually applied for £16,000 worth of tickets.  If we had by any freakish accident got them all, we would have had to put a lot up for resale, but we figured and hoped that if it came to that,  people probably would buy them.

It took us a long time to decide on price bands for the events.  We eventually settled on a mix of some only in the lower bands, but going up to the mid to high levels for those we most wanted to see.  We drew the line at any of the £300 plus tickets though.

When the results were announced, we ended up with just one pair of tickets each.  Initially we were disappointed, but as we spoke to others, we soon discovered that a lot of people didn't get anything.  And we were lucky in that the tickets that we did get are for athletics finals.  They are in the higher price ranges, so we are paying a lot for them, but we were thrilled that we would be getting to see some fantastic events within the stadium itself.

I know that the ballot process was tricky, and that it was disappointing for those who didn't get anything - lets face it, we were hoping to get more than we did so I understand that.  But I did think it was rather sad when I heard that some people I knew were actually resentful of the fact that we had got a pair each and they had got nothing.  I could see why they might feel that way if they had applied for the amount and value of tickets that we had, but these are people who only applied for a few, and only at the cheapest prices.  That was always where the competition would be strongest.  They wouldn't be prepared to spend what we have on the tickets, so it seems odd that they begrudge us having done so.  Happily, most people didn't react that way, and I am pleased to say that most people I know who really wanted to go along to something did eventually manage to get at least one set of tickets.

Although pleased with the tickets we had got, and content to use our leftover budget to offset what we overspent on in our first year away, we did still think it would be nice to try to get along to another type of event too.  And, after a lot of time on the Olympics website and many unsuccessful attempts, we finally managed to buy some tickets to the gymnastics.

So we have ended up with four sets of tickets.  Our gymnastics tickets were for the ladies all round team final that was on Tuesday, and the men's individual  all round final on Wednesday.  We had a great time at these, which I will do a blog on soon.

But we are even more excited about our athletics tickets for next week.  For our first day we will be seeing the mens' 200m final, 800m final, triple jump final and the last two two decathlon events (javelin & 1500m), as well as the ladies' 800m semis, 4x400m round one, and the javelin final.  On the second day we will be seeing the mens 4x100m relay round 1, 4x400m relay final and the pole vault final, as well as the ladies' 4x400m relay round 1, 4x100m relay final, hammer final, 1500m final, and 5000m final.  I have no idea whether we will actually get to see any Team GB athletes in these events, though I think we have a reasonable chance in a few of them, but it should still be an amazing couple of days.  And if we see a Team GB medal then all the better.

But regardless of whether you have tickets, are watching events on one of the big screens, or from the comfort of your own home, I hope you are all thoroughly enjoying the 'greatest show on earth'.