Legacy is a very popular word at the moment. It has become the political hot potato despite the fact the Games still haven’t finished. During the last week the one legacy I have seen already has been a change in the British people. No longer do we make small talk about the weather, but instead we talk about if we had any tickets for the Olympics. I have no idea what we will talk about next week when the Games have finished but I expect some embarrassing silences before we become comfortably enough to broach meteorology again.
When the question “Did you get any Olympic tickets?” raises his head you get two responses. A “No” will result in an almost patronizing “aahh” and a comment along the lines about the BBC showing all 24 events at the same time, and it’s better to watch Gary Linekar and Gabby Logan anyway. A “Yes” though almost certainly results in a second question…”Anything in the stadium yet?” The simple fact of the matter is that THE Olympics is really all about the events on the track.
In the original ballot for tickets, the events in the stadium were oversubscribed fifty fold, and for some events such as Sunday 5th August when the final of the 100 metres was due to take place then you can times that by a further ten. We had applied for sessions in the original ballot without success, and then again during the “priority” period in May. In what was becoming a familiar pattern, tickets were released just after midnight on Monday 6th August, and I just happened to be in the right place (well, in bed on my iPad) at the right time. I managed to snare 1 single ticket for the events starting in just nine hours.
CMF was asleep next to me. I had to somehow break the news gently to her. I also had to re-arrange my morning work calendar. Fortunately the latter proved relatively easy as I work for similar minded people as me who would (I think) understand and not hold my absence from key budgeting meetings against me. CMF was a different kettle of fish.
So I set my alarm for 6.30am, made her breakfast in bed, woke the Littlest Fuller’s up and then prepared their bags for the rest of the day. “Blimey, what’s all this about” she said to me as I delivered Eggs Benedict to her in bed, “what are you after?”…Well, I could hardly lie and tried to hide my excitement. Whilst she said she wasn’t “upset or angry”, I know a cold shoulder when I feel it. Still, I am sure she would be excited when she saw my photos later on in the evening.
The event I had managed to get tickets for was the 100metres Women’s hurdle heats, Men’s 800 metres heats, Women’s 1500 metres heats and the Men’s Discuss and Women’s Shot Putt. All in a two and a bit hour session. It did mean an early start as I had to pick my ticket up and by 9am I had it in my hand, feeling like Charlie Bucket with his golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s factory.
I took the opportunity to get to the front of the stand, soaking in the atmosphere that was building already. This was one arena where it was almost guaranteed to be a sell out and no ugly sight of empty corporate seats. The Olympic Flame burnt brightly just to my left and I counted down the minutes until the start of the events at 10am.
Monday 6th August 2012 – Track and Field
Proceedings started dead on 10am with the first round of the Men’s Discus taking place right in front of me. This is one of the few events at the Olympics where the women hold a longer Olympic record than the men. Back in 1988 in Seoul East Germany’s Martina Hellman threw the discus 72.30 metres, some four metres at the time further than any man had. This year the favorite was German Robert Harting who hadn’t lost a competition for nearly two years. In his first throw he reached the Final qualifying distance, put his tracksuit on and disappeared back to the Athletes Village (He would later go on to win the Gold and celebrate with a quick lap of hurdling much to the organisers annoyance).
The British hope in the first semi-final was Brett Morse. Unfortunately he failed to reach the required distance in any of his qualifying throws. In fact only six throwers reached the automatic qualifying distance in the semi-finals, although in that elite group was young GB hope Lawrence Okoye.
The great thing about the session was there was always something going on. At the far end of the stadium the women’s shot put semi-final was taking place. The favorite here was New Zealander Valerie Adams. Apparently, the 22 meter plus World Records in both male and female competitions are down to the Newtonian counter-reaction of slamming their foot into the wooden board at the edge of the throwing circle that adds extra energy to their throws. You learn something new every day.
Two hours simply flew past. My seat in the top tier offered a great view of the track events, but the shot put at the far end was almost impossible to really follow. This was taking place where the penalty area would be if this stadium is turned into a football ground, but why let little details get in the way of the megalomaniacal plans of Sullivan and Gold.
The good thing about having my ticket was that in theory I could spend all day in the Olympic Park. The bad thing about buying it at the last minute was that I had to get back to work. Sometimes even being part of history doesn’t cut the mustard when financial year end budgeting is well overdue.
More photos from the morning can be found here.
Next up in our Olympic adventure would be a trip out to Royal Berkshire for the Canoe Sprint at Eton Dornay.
