Lunch - 6km cruise to Regents Street (prob my favourite street) and back again. 8/9kms for the day.
PM - J met me from work and then back down memory lane heading to Stratford to the Olympic Stadium. It brought back a flood of memories from 2012 and particularly being there for Super Saturday - the atmosphere was immense then and was quietly optimistic that would be similar.
I always love the walk to the stadium and then the plan was to be there for 6pm for the opening ceremony which involved Sadiq Khan's (the London Mayor) opening speech. I often criticise London but what he said about London and its people is true about it being the most vibrant, rich, diverse and open society in the world. Moments before we had been interviewed by Jamaican radio with the sweet Jamaican couple who were sitting next to us. On that we were perched basically on the home straight around the 80m mark right beside the media section.
A nice touch by the IAAF - I wont give credit to Sebastian Coe as I don't like him and think he's had a massive conflict of interest with Nike which he has somehow skirted - by giving medals to those who missed out because of the cheats. That was quite historic to see.
Time then for the action with the 100m qualifiers with a green card being shown to one with the commentator then quipping that they are all now eligible 'to work in the US'.
Discuss, LJ and Pole vault qualifying before the women's 1500 round #1 with Laura Muir. She is a warrior and a firm favourite of mine. Pretty sure she will not win but she will give it everything, EVERYTHING!
She looked composed and ran well but even better was from Jessica Judd who ran bravely from the front knowing that she had to run quicker than ever before to get into the top 6 and qualify. She came 6th with a PB.
For the Men's 100ms round #1 it was all about Bolt. But it was amusing when Gatlin got roundly booed on numerous occasions with one doode screaming out abuse as they were set to race which was heard by the entire 60,000 in the stadium.
Mo time. He came out and what was immediately noticeable to me was that he owned the place and he knew it. All the other runners were doing their warm up strides (falling into line) with Mo doing the opposite and going the other way. It was brilliant mind games. Say what you want about him but he always games these situations perfectly. I am in the camp that says that he should have distanced himself from Salazar when the stories leaked and he didn't. I still cannot understand why - he got really bad advice. So whatever went on tonight he is tainted like it or not.
The race was brilliant from the off. Initially I thought the atmosphere was not as good as SuperSaturday but he saw to that by raising his arms aloft whilst coming down the home straight on one of the early laps. Initially I was worried when they went through the first 400ms in 61 seconds and a fast first k. 5 laps to go and it was on. I knew then that he would see it home. The BBC reckon the atmosphere was better than 2012 (I would not say that) but it was a more difficult race and therefore better. It was a brutal.
Nice to see him with his kids after and enjoyed the medal ceremony right in front of us before legging it to the TS. Nice evening with the Mrs who was also with me for that Olympic final.
No comments:
Post a Comment