Today was the last day of track cycling. A few good rides from the English girls in particular Sarah Storey a paralympian doing 3.39 in the 3000m pursuit for 6th play. Suffice to say I only realise she was disabled when she came to sit in the stand and I saw that she had her wedding ring on her right hand.
More medals for the Aussies and at last a gold for the Kiwi's as Alison Shanks beat Wendy Houvenaghel of Northern Ireland, thus stopping her from winning their first CWG gold . The Kiwi sprinters also got silver but this was tainted a little by a high speed crash for Ben Webster. No breaks but plenty of bruising.
Really enjoyed the cycling, great venue, nice bunch of Aussies and Kiwis and a few hardy Brits. I think it'll be top of my ticket picks for London 2012, assuming we send a team ...
Bye bye to cycling and hello athletics via the Indian restaurant for the non-veg daily special and a bottle of Kingfisher
Unlike the velodrome the Nehru stadium is a dump. Sorry to the CWG organising committee and all the Indian's who've work day and night in the last few weeks to try and finish the venue. It's not worthy of conference football. The stadium reminds me of an eastern bloc stadium circa 1960. Just a few gripes:-
- drop off for gate 5 (cat A tickets) is on a dust back road that looks like the entrance to a council tip.
- access is via a path through a small wooded area, pretty except the path is still being laid, the grass is still being planted and the lights are Tesco value Christmas lights ...
- the worst bit is access to the stadium. You have to cross a bridge over a Delhi "river", I'll let you guess how far that river is from getting a Blue Flag. I'm guessing that this is in lieu of the bridge that collapsed, even so it's poor.
- security is the same, with rules changing daily, no bags one day, bags OK the next day. Take a picture with the camera one day, take the battery out another ... and on and on.
- once in the usual problems, no designated seats, stupid rules about not drinking in your seat (thank you Indian cricket fans) etc etc.
Once we'd found a seat things are a little better. Some Yank who's the voice of athletics does the commentary so that's not to bad. He seems to pride himself on being able to pronounce every athletes name correctly, even those from Sri Lanka. Pity he can't say "semi" properly ... septics
The evening started brilliantly with an England clean sweep in the men's 110m hurdles. Andy Turner cruised home with Will Sharman clear in second and Lawrence Clarke fighting through for third.
Turner and Clarke did a lap but Sharman didn't. Apparently he'd been criticised by the press in the past for over celebrating a minor medal (idiots!) and so chose to leave Andy to have his glory. This was later confirmed by his mother and sister who are staying in my hotel, travelling on my coach and sat next to me at breakfast ... now observant am I.
Also on our trip are decathlete Kevin Sempers parents. Going into the last event he was in bronze medal position ahead of two other Englishmen and a Welsh decathlete. With 100+ points lead many thought he'd hold on. His parents knew otherwise as he's a notoriously poor 1500m runner. They were right and bronze went to Brockman. For his two days of pain Kevin got an ear bashing from his mother for not trying hard enough in the run. Tough love.
The newly Scottish Beth Twell did well to take on the Kenyan's and get a medal in the 1500m.
The local crowd came alive in the last hour as their triple jumper held on to bronze until the penultimate round. Worse was to come for English shot-putter Daniel West who was pushed out of gold in the last round.
India's night finshed on a high as they snatched a bronze from England in the 10,000m for women. As this race coinsided with the shot there was nearly an international incident as the Indians insisted on standing in the aisle whilst us polite Brits sat in our seats. Eventually a shouting match broke out and I am pleased to confirm a fabulous victory for the English and progress into the next round.
The stupid, no drinks in your seats rule also reached a head as the senior stewards seem to have given up with the Indians and started trying to enforce it only for the visitors. Hence another stand-off which we'll call a draw. I'm now getting wise to the game. The wealthy Indians are stubborn like Germans, French and Yanks are. When told to do something they argue and keep arguing until they win. Nobody is ever ejected, soldiers and police are never called. I think the reason is that India is the land of paperwork and forms, I'll better the paperwork for ejecting a person for drinking in the stands goes to at least 6 pages. No sane person would bother with that, so they just give in. Our tour company has now taken to a pre-emptive strike and start arguing before the stewards say anything. I'll bet you now that I can get a rocket launcher into the closing ceremony. Look out for me I'll be in the top tier.
One last thing Merchandising. I've been here 4 days had have seen absolutely no merchandising, not a thing. Rumour has it that the organising committee know it's not coming until after the Games but are taking the Indian approach of saying tomorrow to all enquiries. I get great pleasure in asking anybody in authority when I can get merchandising.
Off to walk the streets of Delhi now and try and find the beer shop. Two beers in 4 days is not good. Hotel doesn't have a license but the dodgy waiters will sort you out a drink but at highly inflated prices. Every morning at breakfast all I get is "will Sir be having some beer with dinner ... nudge nudge wink wink".
Last day of swimming today, it should have been Rebecca Addlington but they seem to have changed the schedule. All I need is to hear the Aussie anthem a few more time. After swimming I've exactly minus 5 minutes to get to the stadium for the evening athletics ... no chance.
Mike
PS. Hot news is that Mark Cavendish, stroppy but gifted Manx cyclist is flying in for the road race. Well worth a watch as it's being run through the town. Expect pot-holes, stray dogs, families of 6 on a scooter and Cavendish fighting with all and sundry.
PPS. Jo Jackson has just won the 20km walk, it's a crazy event but her parents will be happy. They're also travelling with us.
More medals for the Aussies and at last a gold for the Kiwi's as Alison Shanks beat Wendy Houvenaghel of Northern Ireland, thus stopping her from winning their first CWG gold . The Kiwi sprinters also got silver but this was tainted a little by a high speed crash for Ben Webster. No breaks but plenty of bruising.
Really enjoyed the cycling, great venue, nice bunch of Aussies and Kiwis and a few hardy Brits. I think it'll be top of my ticket picks for London 2012, assuming we send a team ...
Bye bye to cycling and hello athletics via the Indian restaurant for the non-veg daily special and a bottle of Kingfisher
Unlike the velodrome the Nehru stadium is a dump. Sorry to the CWG organising committee and all the Indian's who've work day and night in the last few weeks to try and finish the venue. It's not worthy of conference football. The stadium reminds me of an eastern bloc stadium circa 1960. Just a few gripes:-
- drop off for gate 5 (cat A tickets) is on a dust back road that looks like the entrance to a council tip.
- access is via a path through a small wooded area, pretty except the path is still being laid, the grass is still being planted and the lights are Tesco value Christmas lights ...
- the worst bit is access to the stadium. You have to cross a bridge over a Delhi "river", I'll let you guess how far that river is from getting a Blue Flag. I'm guessing that this is in lieu of the bridge that collapsed, even so it's poor.
- security is the same, with rules changing daily, no bags one day, bags OK the next day. Take a picture with the camera one day, take the battery out another ... and on and on.
- once in the usual problems, no designated seats, stupid rules about not drinking in your seat (thank you Indian cricket fans) etc etc.
Once we'd found a seat things are a little better. Some Yank who's the voice of athletics does the commentary so that's not to bad. He seems to pride himself on being able to pronounce every athletes name correctly, even those from Sri Lanka. Pity he can't say "semi" properly ... septics
The evening started brilliantly with an England clean sweep in the men's 110m hurdles. Andy Turner cruised home with Will Sharman clear in second and Lawrence Clarke fighting through for third.
Turner and Clarke did a lap but Sharman didn't. Apparently he'd been criticised by the press in the past for over celebrating a minor medal (idiots!) and so chose to leave Andy to have his glory. This was later confirmed by his mother and sister who are staying in my hotel, travelling on my coach and sat next to me at breakfast ... now observant am I.
Also on our trip are decathlete Kevin Sempers parents. Going into the last event he was in bronze medal position ahead of two other Englishmen and a Welsh decathlete. With 100+ points lead many thought he'd hold on. His parents knew otherwise as he's a notoriously poor 1500m runner. They were right and bronze went to Brockman. For his two days of pain Kevin got an ear bashing from his mother for not trying hard enough in the run. Tough love.
The newly Scottish Beth Twell did well to take on the Kenyan's and get a medal in the 1500m.
The local crowd came alive in the last hour as their triple jumper held on to bronze until the penultimate round. Worse was to come for English shot-putter Daniel West who was pushed out of gold in the last round.
India's night finshed on a high as they snatched a bronze from England in the 10,000m for women. As this race coinsided with the shot there was nearly an international incident as the Indians insisted on standing in the aisle whilst us polite Brits sat in our seats. Eventually a shouting match broke out and I am pleased to confirm a fabulous victory for the English and progress into the next round.
The stupid, no drinks in your seats rule also reached a head as the senior stewards seem to have given up with the Indians and started trying to enforce it only for the visitors. Hence another stand-off which we'll call a draw. I'm now getting wise to the game. The wealthy Indians are stubborn like Germans, French and Yanks are. When told to do something they argue and keep arguing until they win. Nobody is ever ejected, soldiers and police are never called. I think the reason is that India is the land of paperwork and forms, I'll better the paperwork for ejecting a person for drinking in the stands goes to at least 6 pages. No sane person would bother with that, so they just give in. Our tour company has now taken to a pre-emptive strike and start arguing before the stewards say anything. I'll bet you now that I can get a rocket launcher into the closing ceremony. Look out for me I'll be in the top tier.
One last thing Merchandising. I've been here 4 days had have seen absolutely no merchandising, not a thing. Rumour has it that the organising committee know it's not coming until after the Games but are taking the Indian approach of saying tomorrow to all enquiries. I get great pleasure in asking anybody in authority when I can get merchandising.
Off to walk the streets of Delhi now and try and find the beer shop. Two beers in 4 days is not good. Hotel doesn't have a license but the dodgy waiters will sort you out a drink but at highly inflated prices. Every morning at breakfast all I get is "will Sir be having some beer with dinner ... nudge nudge wink wink".
Last day of swimming today, it should have been Rebecca Addlington but they seem to have changed the schedule. All I need is to hear the Aussie anthem a few more time. After swimming I've exactly minus 5 minutes to get to the stadium for the evening athletics ... no chance.
Mike
PS. Hot news is that Mark Cavendish, stroppy but gifted Manx cyclist is flying in for the road race. Well worth a watch as it's being run through the town. Expect pot-holes, stray dogs, families of 6 on a scooter and Cavendish fighting with all and sundry.
PPS. Jo Jackson has just won the 20km walk, it's a crazy event but her parents will be happy. They're also travelling with us.
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