Day 13: Pole vaulting , mainly

This is the Decathlon sprint hurdles. The gold and silver medallists are the US guys in red - Trey Hardee on the left, Ashton Eaton on the right.

The 4x400 heats. Chaos. This is when Oscar Pistorius was waiting in vain for the baton because his mate had been knocked over. He's the one to the right of centre. The one without any legs.

These are the high jump girls chatting about who's qualified and if they need to do another round or can go home. Looks like they are in the back garden of a pub doesn't it?

In the afternoon they did all the Decathlon pole vaulting.. it lasted three and a half hours. No really, three and a half hours.

Luckily we'd bought the paper to read

See all those flags at the top in the previous picture?. They are all the Olympic flags -  in alphabetical order! Would you like to see all of them?  Go on, of course you would...

Day 12: Fight!

Taekwondo. It's girls getting repeatedly kicked about the head.. now that's what I call sport!

Having said that, it's a bit of a difficult watch when one of them squeals with pain and the trainer has to come on with the magic sponge

Then when that's over, between rounds your coach bellows in your face. It's a pretty tough business

When the blokes do it, it's still pretty cool, if a bit less elegant. One of the good things about Taekwondo is that if the fighters circle each other waiting for an opening the ref roars 'FIGHT!!' in order to get them to get back to biffing each other..

Here's a thing. 'Chinese Taipei' had a fighter, but their supporters are not allowed to take photos of their national (=Taiwanese) flag, they have to use the official 'made-up-just-for-the-Olympics-to-keep China-happy' flag. Two girls behind me were told by a steward to delete the photo they'd taken of themselves. Don't worry, I don't expect you to believe this.

Anyway here's a Taiwan flag, included here just to prove what a crazy rule-breaker I am.... 

This is my favourite Taekwondo-er, Brigitte Yague of Spain who came back from being 9-4 down with 30 secs to go to qualify for the final (which she lost, unfortunately)

Day 11: Gymnastics, Triaction

The Brownlee brothers in Hyde Park, with that pesky Spaniard who got the silver

Here they are on the cycling leg, with Alistair in front followed by Johnny, with the crowd fretting about Johnny's 15-second penalty

Gymnastics at the 'North Greenwich Arena'...there's quite a lot of camerarderie at the Gymnastics. The girl in blue did a brilliant floor routine, but because she stepped a foot off the mat she came last. It's pretty tough

Also when you are anxiously waiting your score, probably knowing you've mucked up and you want to hide, two great big cameras are stuck in your face..

Epke Zonderland from Holland won the gold medal for swinging on a pole. Seems like a nice boy, doesn't he?...

The view from hospitality. Very nice. Just to the right of the screen is where I sat for Barbra Streisand..

The Stars and Stripes. Annoyingly stirring even if you aren't American. Plus some nice direction I think. This is the Us's Aly Raisman with a gold medal for bouncing around on the floor...

People in the bar going bonkers over cycling. That never used to happen.

Tuesday

Hi, it's Miriam.
Did you see Usain Bolt's 200m heat this morning? The boy with a very smug smile on his face guarding Usain's box was George Hoy from my History class. You see the black hat that Bolt was wearing as the athletes warmed up? He gave that hat to George.

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/9862650.SOUTH_WOODFORD__World_s_fastest_man_gives_his_hat_to_aspiring_athlete/


In other news, I saw the Brownlee brothers in triathlon action ( triaction?) this morning in Hyde Park, and David is at the gymnastics.

Tuesday 14th

George has become something of a celebrity thanks to this encounter.

http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/news/news/i_can_t_believe_it_happened_south_woodford_boy_describes_meeting_usain_bolt_1_1481323

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9469821/London-2012-Olympics-the-volunteers-who-made-the-games.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01m29kt/The_One_Show_13_08_2012/ (about 24 mintues in)

He also appeared on Channel 5 News, BBC London News (accoriding to his Facebook statuses anyway) and there was a picture of him to today's Times.

And to think, this boy would know nothing about the Knight of the Long Knives if it wasn't for me.

Sleb spotting

This is an update on the various notables we've seen over the past few days:

Football legend and Crisp ambassador Gary Lineker: Tim made him a cup of coffee
Former sprint champion Linford Christie: Has had prolonged banter with Tim in his coffee pod

Apart from everyone in the BBC box, and of course Paul 'n' Nancy, Pat can also contribute:

1968 Gold medallist David Hemery; Cycle gold medallist Chris Boardman; Broadcasting legend Barry Davies (Pat checked his accreditation); F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone; Swimmer Mark Foster: (Spotted by Pat on the Central Line)

Here is Andy-friend Kim Sears at Wimbledon (nice legs..)

And this is Bronze medallist Juan Martin Del Potro being serenaded by Argentinian fans, which is not that interesting, I agree, except that as I was taking it Venus Williams had to bodge past me as I was getting in her way

This is swimming legend Ian Thorpedo, admittedly photographed as he was in the BBC studio so it doesn't really count

Rugby playing celebrity dancer Austin Healey at the gymnastics

At Lord's, on the right here, Jonathan Agnew has his back to us while talking to former England captain Mike Gatting. Afterwards I had some banter with Aggers: he seems very nice

This is Denise Lewis teaching the BBC box the actions to YMCA. (Don't ask)

Tim also claims to have seen the King and Queen of Greece on Thursday; and Seb Coe's wife Carole on Saturday.

In preparation for the Paralympics, here is Dame Tanni

and Ade Opitipan (or something), you know, the wheelchair basketball guy

Radio Five's Colin Murray

Day 10: Back in the Olympic Park

Your Day 10 hosts

Hannah England in the women's 1500m

And later on, just outside the Athletes' village

Lisa Dobriskey in the Mixed zone

This is GB's Lawrence Okoye who got the biggest cheer of the day in qualifying in the Discus

Day 9: Olympic Wimbledon

Djokovic, not on form today, losing the repercharge against Argentina's Del Potro

Del Potro doing that 'it-means-so much-to-me-I'm-going-to-collapse-in-a heap' thing. Someone tell him it's only the Bronze medal

On Centre Court here's Andy and Laura not winning. That's the crazy Belorussians on the right, and the lovely Kim Sears (=Mrs Andy) in the yellow jacket in the middle

The Williams sisters with their doubles gold medal, and their BOGOF flowers that someone's nipped out to Tesco's for ..

Some plucky Germans -Kas and Lisziki - who we saw get beaten in the penalty shoot out in the

Mixed bronze medal match

Murray and Robson with their silver medals. Laura seems a bit more used to smiling than Andy

This is the Victory Podium being got ready in the crypt at Centre Court

Day 8: Beach Volleyball at Horse Guards Parade

Goodness knows how this got approved. You can just see Nelson to the left at the bottom of the fllodlight. He has been given a Union Flag hat for the duration of the games. (I have not made this up)

Oh, blokes play it as well, but who cares about that?

Meanwhile at Park Live, Jess was winning Gold, the crowd going crazy...

 

The 1948 Olympics as seen from Birmingham

It's my mum's birthday today so I thought I'd look up her blog of the 1948 London Olympics...

Hmm. Olympics not mentioned at all. Not a word. Sorry about that

Day 7: At last, the athletics

The lovely Jess, just after she ran her world-beating time in the hurdles

Jess's mate Katarina Hobson-Jobson, who was in third place after the high jump, but isn't as good at everything else.

Dai Greene. Self -esteem not an issue here.

Christine Ohuruogu. This one came out well, didn't it?

The Olympic flame - it looks a lot smaller than it does on telly

Jo Pavey and Holly Bleasdale doing a lap of honour after coming 6th and 9th in the 10,000m. Hmm, that never used to happen, did it?
(Note: not Holly Bleasdale, she's a pole vaulter. Someone else called Bleasdale. A plucky Brit, anyway)
Note: Julia Bleasdale, sorry Julia

The stadium looks like a proper sporting venue at night

Jess jumping over some sticks, the crowd going mad

Jess running in front of some other girls, the crowd going mad