Monday 27 August 2012

Olympics day 13

Day 13 of the Olympics for the my family meant a trip to the Olympic Park in Stratford, London. It was a blistering hot day which meant that we were often hunting for a little bit of shade. The site was bustling with excitement and pride from people representing a huge variety of countries.

The aquatics centre was the venue for the final of the women's 10m diving competition. We had seats high up in the stands, which gave the 50m pool the illusion of being a small paddling pool. Difficult to believe this was where  gold medals had been won.

The diving was amazing to watch, it is really difficult to understand how someone can do a handstand on the very edge of a 10m drop. After some spectacular dives, the gold medal went to a Chinese athlete. Due to flash photography distracting the divers and the distance of our seats I took very photos of the actual event, but managed to take quite a few outside of the arena.







Sunday 12 August 2012

Olympics day 11

An early start to the day, an hour long drive south towards Slough via Abingdon and tickets to see the canoeing and kayking sprints at Eaton Dorney. Very exciting!

Being a paddler of the more stable kayaks and knowing how easy it is to end up in the water, I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed not to see any capsizes.

Here a few photos of the day. I did try messing with various elements during the morning, so hence so photos are 'better' than others. But, please bear in mind that my motivation is still not where it should be, but it is slowly, slowly increasing.


Mens K4
The underdogs for the C2 were very much the Angolan team.
Spot the Swedish supporter
Womens K2, slow shutter speed
Mens K4
Mens C2
Must be a Brit on the water

It was a great morning out and a fantastic atmosphere. Thanks to my navigator (who would now like to try her hand at sprint canoeing) and the people that didn't take up the offer of a free tickets. 

I would like to suggest to the BCU, that perhaps we can hold the Hasler kayak marathon finals here, I am sure we can find 25,000 people to cheer us on!