Thetownend.com

Not sure if there is an Olympics thread already, what events will you be watching? I'm looking forward to the swimming, cycling and possibly will watch the gymnastics as well

I think the Lodnon 2012 Olympisc has more of a ring to it.

Heh. Lodnon :toocool:

I will watch as much as I can on TV... I love it. Also, I'm unemployed, skint, and intolerant to summer sunshine, so it will keep me occupied regardless.

Taking in USA vs Croatia women's basketball on Saturday, and Team GB vs Uruguay men's football live.

I'm looking forward to

The Pro-Celebrity Knob Wrestling

The Kicking Seb Coe In The Hole

The Steve Evans 10yds Dash

I am looking forward to the opening ceremony being a total fuck up!

Do people remember the bit they did at the closing ceremony of the last games?  A big red bus, David Beckham, Leona Lewis, some old guitarist and just when it couldnt get any worse Boris Johnson ...

Of course all the press and old olympians came out and said wasnt it great .... Well I have news for them .... IT WAS SHITE!

I expect Friday to be equally as big a fuck up!

Though I will cheer when the Indian team enter the arena!

Got tickets for the Womens Cycling Road Race

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin...ffs, 'some old guitarist'. :badmood:

i will be watching the 'womens' gymnastics

The word out there is that it's going to be a bit special and worth watching.

I shall be keeping a close eye on any woman athlete who gives the impression of smuggling a budgie.

Facial hair just isn't enough to spot them these days

Why is the opening ceremony on so late ? I'm sure i heard on the radio the other day that the British team wont be appearing until 11:30 ! I know you cant have fireworks etc during the day so it needs to be in the evening but wouldn't it be good to have as many people watching it as possible including kids who may live another 60 years without seeing this again ?

It starts at 4 doesn't it?

And with the wonders of modern technology, it's not going to be that difficult to watch it again is it? I won't be suprised if the bbc have a channel set aside solely to show the opening ceremony on repeat for the two weeks. They've got one for everything else.

People always find things to whinge about in these olympics, and NONE OF THEM ARE MATTERS TO MOAN ABOUT. It pisses me off that this is the biggest festival of sport to ever take place in this country ever, and people still try and whinge.

going tomorrow to see GB against Senegal with the two kids, wishing i'd got tickets to something better...

I thought they were starting late to give everyone who finishes work at 5 time to get home so they can watch it, not to mention the time differnce in other countries and try to make it eaiser for the yanks to watch.

Totally with you on this. Everybody moaning about how crap the opening ceremony is going to be based on nothing other than a three minute bit of nonsense in Beijing that nobody really cared about, and a bucket load of good old British pessimism.

This is likely to be the key bit.

One of the pluses about the Olympics is we get to ogle some stunners as well.  :D

Apparently the rest of the world perceive us now as a nation of moaners. Well fuck them...they can piss off.

me too, if the games was in another city in another country everyone would be talking about our medal chances and hoping we do even better than last time round.

but no, it's in england and all people can do talk shit about it.

i dread to think what would happen if we ever get another world cup - it'd be the worst thing to ever happen anywhere on the planet presumably...

I thought it started at 20:12, and went on till gone midnight ? And yes I know I can watch it again, not really the same though is it ?

To be honest though, if all we're finding to moan about is stupid little things like this, it should be the best Olympics yet. A lot of other countries have still been fitting the seats in the stadiums or plumbing the Olympic village at this stage !

The Daily Mail would go into meltdown, I don't think the media help at all in the build up to any major event. Focusing too much on the negative and not enough on the positives. I will enjoy having the Olympics here in my country this will be the first and last time I'll ever see it here.

Well if there's going to be an Olympics Stunners I don't want Saudi Arabia

Prepubescent gymnasts and tanks who could beat the living fuck out of you?

If you have Virgin, check out the 24 additional BBC Olympics channels (High 500s, maybe 580...).  Looks like they're trying to televise absolutely everything.

Well if that's your thing, I prefer the women's beach volleyball myself.

Its good to see us host a major sporting event but we will be made to look silly as you can bet our public transport system will be shown up for how awful it really is. It will also be interesting to see how well organised it is as well.

On the actual subject of sport I'll watch the footy maybe some sprinting events, the cycling but that's about it id imagine.

Lodnon 2012 Oylmpisc??

Have tickets to football at Coventry on Sunday.

Planning to go to the Individual TT on Tuesday (as its free).

Have tickets for the Athletics next Saturday (incl 100m heats).

Will probably watch a load of shit sports that I wouldn't normally watch, if GB have a chance of a medal (ie Rowing, Hockey, Swimming, Sailing etc....).

It's the only time in my, or my sons, lifetime that we will host an Olympics.
If you like sport then it seems a bit daft to not embrace the opportunity.

North Korea aren't playing, because they put the south Korea flag on the screen.

That's pretty funny

That's fucking hilarious!

That's the kind of the we take the piss out of the Yanks for.

It was at hampden park so probably the scots trying to make us look foolish.

Anyway the north and south of Korea are best of friends so I'm sure it won't be too much of an issue!!

Either way, certainly not good for somebody's Korea

I can't see that being the Seoul reason for sacking someone.

If anyone makes a pun out of 'Pyeong Yang' I'll be well impressed.

I've been trying, I think Barry and I may have exhausted all Norky puns already.

Where's Nev when you need him?

I've got Sky, but it appears the same thing has happened - Channel 474 onwards

I was trying to think of similar situations to the North Korea flag cockup from the past. I came up with quite a few, but couldn't find a 38th Parallel.

Hoo is the President of South Korea.

(Damn.  Doesn't work as well when you write it down.)

Lee Myung-Bak

(I think you're right, it didn't work  ;))

Sneak preview of Danny Boyles opening ceremony.

http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2012/07/26/world-video-exclusive-danny-boyles-opening-ceremony-leaked/

If you're a couch potato obscure football geek, then today must be very heaven... I did check the truly wonderful Beeb Olympic listings earlier, on the advice of the dark prince, and discovered Honduras v Morocco, watched all of a minute, before deciding that might well be the lot...fair play to anyone who does watch this shit...you deserve a medal

Back to Cash in the Attic Reg?

Honduras v Mexico finished 2-2. Can't have been that bad a game. And the wonderfully named Ben & Jerry scored 2 for Honduras. What's not to like?

No...West Indies v NZ from Antigua...a Test Match with possibly the lowest crowd in history.

I thought it was Morocco, given the way they whinged and bitched about the pen decision...must pay closer attention, to my national stereotypes

You are right it was Morocco. Funnily enough we played in a local bank league football match a couple of weeks ago against a team which featured what I think were Moroccans. (Certainly from that neck of the woods) and they bitched and whined like a bunch of girls, despite spending the time kicking lumps out of us.

Our fiery Scottish forward kicked one of them in a tackle and then held his hand out to apologise. The fella took exception to this and said 'no, you do not kick someone and apologise' to which Ross replied, 'what the fuck do you expect me to do, apologise and then kick you'.

Needless to say we beat them 4-0, hence having the last laughs!

Sounds like a job for Dr. Hoo

Bookies William Hill have closed the book on whos going to light the olympic torch after thousands of pounds was placed on Roger Bannister

Looks to be just WillHill as the others still have Sir Steve as fav ahead of Rog!

https://p.twimg.com/Ay0Bv7dCEAILD5W.jpg

Just wanted to say while driving through London yesterday evening aboard a bus, while on the way to watch Derren Brown, I was staring at a bird in the car next to me who I found strangely attractive, and some how familiar. After a few minutes I realised it was Posh, but only on account of realising how much like Beckham the driver looked. Weird.

Drove past this ground on a day trip from a cruise a couple of years ago - like Wembley stadium in  the middle of a very large area of scrubland - built with money 'donated' by China. Despite being Antigua with stunning scenery in parts, there is sadly considerable poverty for a large number of the indigenous population .

BBC have added loads of Olympics channels.
On Virgin they're 574 - 597.

Looking forward to watching the opening ceremony tonight with pizza, cider and a few tons of cheap Swedish pick and mix.

I don't know why but I always enjoy seeing all of the athletes being introduced

I'm genuinely looking forward to this evening.  Snippets that have emerged from the rehearsals make it sound as if the ceremony has been tailored very much to the local, UK audience.  So the rest of the world might not understand a word of it...but should be fun for us!

Lovey alert!!!!!!!!!

I'm settled in with an awesome amount of takeaway sushi ready to take in the whole spectacle - I can't wait!

Pointless speculation I know, but I've seen rumours that there might be a beatles hologram, similar to the tupac one from coachella. That would be AMAZZZZIIINNGGG

This is brilliant

Worst rendition of abide with me I have ever heard.

Danny Boyle nailed it!  Really enjoyed that. But can't we make the Athletes run so we can get to the torch lighting.

Pretty stunning indeed, the visuals and music are a little bit special.  I even laughed at the Rowan fucking Atkinson bit.

Boys are going to see Brazil at Old Trafford on Sunday, and we've also got the golden tickets - Korea against Gabon at Wembley, plus some volleyball, hockey and a bit later, horse stuff at the paralympics.  Love to grab one or two more bits, so who knows?

This is going to be awesome.

Queen: "Good evening, Mr Bond". That were class...

They had a track on earlier that sounded like Underworld - Rez, but wasn't actually it. It makes me wonder whether they're making some music especially, whether there's a remix I don't know of or whether Underworld didn't write the melody. Hmm, as if anyone cares or knows!

To be honest I haven't shown much interest in the build up but think tonight's opening ceremony has been very impressive. The stadium looks amazing and I'm now looking forward to seeing it being used for the different events.

Did anyone just see the German dignitary doing a nazi salute they switched the camera away from him soapy tit wank

pic.twitter.com/6kO4Pb0X

This is fucking great. Sat next to two Americans and through all their 'Oh you're such an adorable little country' bullshit I still felt and feel massively proud.

Can't wait for the ending.

I like the fact there was no way to compete with Beijing, so we didn't. Other opening ceremonies - conventional, dull. We did it our way.

I reckon not much of the rest of the world will get Boyle's masterpiece. But fuck 'em. We paid for it so we'll do it our way and if only the Brits get it then tough shit.

Comoros, a country i've never, ever heard of. My Geography is pretty decent too.
You learn something new every day.

Apart from wheeling out 204 bloomin' countries it's been a very impressive opening ceremony.

Millwall have a Comoros international. Mind you, Nadjim Abdou was French when I saw him play for Plymouth.

Jimmy Abdou dived and rolled around to get Dougie sent off a couple of years back if I remember correctly......the cunt.

Got Korea vs Gabon too! Will be a cracker!

Nailed it!!

Very proud indeed x

Been shit hot, can't wait for this to start now!

You sure it was Rez? Thought I heard Dark & Long (Dark Train) when the athletes were coming out.

I don't care how big and grand the Beijing opening ceremony was. We had James Bond escorting the Queen to the opening ceremony. OK, the parachute bit was cheesy and didn't quite work for me, but the part at Buck Palace was ace. Best ever opening ceremony just for that bit.

Well, I thought the opening ceremony was absolutely great.  Totally British and that's the way it should have been.

I'm thoroughly looking forward to the Olympics as a whole.  I know it cost a ridiculous sum of money and a lot of people are moaning about it, but to be honest I'd rather my taxes went towards this than supporting the lazy bastards who can't be bothered to find a job or the mothers who spawn out countless kids by different fathers!

I don't get the people moaning about it. You can't put a value on what it means to the country as a whole and the benefits we'll get from it. Think they said a billion people will have watched the opening ceremony, all watching London, all listening to British music, all watching British culture and so on.

I'm very impressed. Very impressed.

Amazing ceremony. Seen a few moans on Facebook and Twitter - have to ask what people were expecting?!!

Great use of music and visuals, some fantastic comedy moments, and it's just truly incredible to see a show put on with 2500 volunteer actors.

Kudos to Sir Danny of Boyle.

Fuck the moaners

After the N. Korea fuck up I was expecting a right royal fuck up.

but they nailed it.

A real demonstration that, whatever else we fuck up, we still know how to put on an event.  Fantastic, funny and, at various points, deeply moving - few have mentioned the Olympic Flag ceremony, with Muhammad Ali...a sly tear shed here....

Been out on the lash, worth watching??

I only watched about 30 mins, so they could have had both, but it was definitely Rez I heard - which, to me, is a surprising tune to play.

Pretty bloody cool to play something like that I might add, although I'm convinced it was a specially commissioned remix to make it more mellow and easy on the layman.

I hope they have it on iPlayer because I wanted to watch the whole thing, but only saw it from about an 1:15 or 1:30 ish in.

Barry, in case you didn't know: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16068946

The Sun had the James Bond bit as an April Fool this year

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/4232299/James-Bond-news-Daniel-Craig-has-been-invited-by-The-Queen-to-open-the-2012-Olympic-games.html

It was good.

I knew that twat paul mccartney would get on the bandwagon

Here, here.

I was and am so proud to be British. The Queen may have looked a little bored at times but she is knocking on a bit and you could not blame her and Prince Philip if they popped outside for a smoke so to speak to break up the boredom after all the ceremonies they have had to sit through. However, that showed the world and reminded them of who we are, what we have done for the world (like the bloke who invented the WWW.) and so on in such a fantastic way. OK world, pick the bones out of that one.

Well done to all who gave their FREE time to put this on, unlike the Communist countries who press gang their people into putting on huge military style propaganda events.

Classic.

At least they got it right saying TimBL invented the World Wide Web and not the internet. A common misconception.

Foreign press seems to be pretty favourable as well.  NY Times loved it.  Die Welt called it a 'Meisterwerk'!

Same here. Fell so sorry for the great man. Think his wife was trying to get him to wave, but he couldn't do it.

Also spawned a big discussion in our house as my kids were asking who he was and what Parkinson's was.

I love that a ceremony going out to the world featured kes, gregory's girl and t-rex

Also reading that, as well as showing it delayed by an hour, NBC cut the 7/7 tribute in favour of a michael phelps interview. Classy

Just watched the highlights and read the review on the BBC News pages and was close to tears - Dead proud. Dead chuffed. Dead surprised!

Loved the ceremony. Fell asleep as Sir Steve was bringing the torch out though!

I actually thought it was pretty good. I wasn't even planning on watching it but my gf put it on and I started to get into it. It showed everything that is great about this country. Kudos to Boyle for putting it together.

It didn't move me, or make me feel particularly proud but it was good entertainment, I enjoyed it.

It was amazing, very well put together. Enjoyed every second of it, even the procession of countries. It never felt like it was on three hours.

Been watching the Women's beach volleyball, those Russian birds are worth waking up for.  ;)

slow start to the opening ceremony but it ended up being superb.

See Ian Thorpe is the beeb's swimming expert.

Never realised he was  :gay:

I was expecting it to be a be shit - but seriously impressed. Watched it again with the kids and its even better 2nd time round.

Fair play to Queen Liz. Abide with me was a tear jerker. Mr Bean was there for the kids only.

Proud.

The first Opening Ceremony to feature sheep.

Top Drawer :clap:

I didn't know. Kind of explains it then! :)

I thought it was long winded, dull and boring. Still,cost 8 million less than Andy Carroll though i suppose. ;)
Will enjoy what the Olympics is about now-the sport

Paul Mccartney was nearly a fuck up looked like he was singing different words to what i was hearing at one point.

So the opening ceremony was good then.

Was going to watch it, but we had a power cut at 8:45, so missed it.


Off to Coventry tomorrow to watch Football (Mexico v Gabon & South Korea v Switzerland)

About 1:31:25 ish is where it begins. Puzzlingly Hazel Irvine says, "join in if you know the song, think we all remember it, don't we?" Hazel the closet raver. It's definitely Rez, but sounds like with a piano and some pads later on.

After what Samdy posted, I can only presume they made a new version especially.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01l4ldk/Olympic_Ceremonies_London_2012_Opening_Ceremony/

http://deadspin.com/5929778/heres-the-opening-ceremony-tribute-to-terrorism-victims-nbc-doesnt-want-you-to-see

Watched it in Hyde Park. Brilliant stuff, it's very easy to be cynical (and fuck knows I usually am) but somehow it all worked, absolutely brilliant bits throughout, but Bond, Bean and more poignantly Ali were excellent.

Certainly did on the HD channel. Thought he was lip synching at first, but his performance was definitely live or he wouldn't have been out of tune!

Don't underestimate the popularity of Mr Bean outside of the UK.

I missed the first 15 minutes but thought the whole thing was perfectly pitched - not too pretentious, not much pomp and circumstance and a diverse range of performances. The end was a damp squib with a seemingly never-ending rendition of Hey Jude.

Watched it on NRK (the Norwegian equivalent to BBC) and their commentators did their best to ruin the whole thing, particularly by chatting away during the moment's silence.

One of the most instantly recognisable faces in this neck of the woods, Mr Bean is a massive export.

The stadium looked very impressive last night

Call me a moaner but cant help thinking the money spent on the NHS "tribute" would have been better spent on the ..er,NHS.

So just leave it out altogether then?

It was brilliant, loved it.

Rather off-beat highlight for me was when the Bee Gees started playing just as Fiji were read out in the competitors entrance. I laughed but was probably the only one.

The bbc coverage of the events themselves is superb.

All that talking from Wiggins the other day about the road race and not 1 bloody medal.

yay Norway

Can someone explain the cycling to me as i am clueless about it.
If the brits are so good why didn't they get out front make all the running and stay there?
Also, why was the guy who came second looking over his shoulder right at the end allowing borats mate to come through, instead of busting a gut for the line?

I guess its about conserving energy. I assumed britain thought the leaders would drop off, or others would go faster to help them catch up. But neither happened. Maybe that counts as being too clever, or maybe its just one of those things, I don't really know

I'm also a novice.  But it looks as if they (we) were sitting back at the head of the peloton on the belief that other countries back there were going to help us out, which would have enabled the front of the peloton to reel the leaders in, giving Cavendish the chance to sprint for it at the finish.  In the event, no other countries came forward, so the Brits just couldn't close the leaders down...so Cavendish was nowhere at the finish.  The commentators seemed supremely confident all the time the cyclists were out in Surrey, and suddenly seemed to get jumpy an hour or so from the end when it dawned on them that the Brits were isolated.

I'm starting to get in to my cycling more now.  Very watchable.

I think GB's tactics would've been spot on if it were a tour race. As a one-off medal event, it nearly worked out but wasn't quite good enough. Like they said on commentary, everyone else in the peloton just expected GB to do all the graft and bring back the leaders.

And hopefully Wiggins has got enough left in his legs for the TT on Wednesday.

That's exactly it, we just ran out of energy towards the end as no other country really helped out at the front of the peloton all day.  Don't understand when the Germans didn't do more work, they had nobody in the break and it would have been in their own interests to have the race end in a sprint.

Especially as Cancellara could be suffering from that crash he had, him and Wiggo should be battling for gold.

The only consolation was that the Kazakh chap looked as if all his Christmases had come at once at the end.  He was totally blown away.  I was quite happy for him.

Vino has previous shall we say, on the being blown away front, he's also retiring at the end of this season, well at least from the TdF.

Be fair to say Cav was not impressed with the Germans

Impressed with the way they went up Box Hill. I struggle to drive up there.

I don't understand this, so the tactic was to cycle 250km and then outsprint them so why the fuck bother with the 250km and just do 800m..

Because you couldnt get 500k spectators in. Disappointed they blacked out the large cock that was drawn on the  box hill slope

its an endurance race so dont see how shortening it would help.

Ian Thorpe has got to be queer. Cooooooooooooeeeeeeeeeeeee

High contrast was doing a lot of the music and remixed at least one Underworld tune so it might have been one of his. https://twitter.com/linkcontrast/status/228969877606637568

I thought the music was amazing - they couldn't really have chosen better people to do it and helped make it the best opening ceremony ever overall, definitely the one I enjoyed watching the most and as for £27m being a lot of money - that's a joke, if it really was watched by a billion people then the amount it will raise in tourism revenues alone will dwarf that easily. You can't buy advertising like that and the helicopter trip past all the London landmarks alone will attract millions more tourists. Danny Boyle deserves a knighthood.


Edit: It was a high contrast remix.

See: http://olympicsblog.co.uk/blog/featured-story/soundtrack-of-the-opening-ceremony/ CD2 Track 20.

Swindon born Hannah miley up next in the swimming

Dissapointing.

Fucking hell BWB is alive

That Chinese girl just spanked that WR

I'm getting Chicken in black bean sauce out of respect for that effort.

Norwegian handball coach doing a Paul Hart after they lost to France.

interviewer: "Why do you think you lost?"
coach: "why do you think?"

Just got home from the beach volleyball.

Organisation was pretty poor. Them telling everyone to turn up a couple of hours early was a joke, they didn't let anyone in to the area until 6.30 and then didn't open the stadium area until about 7.15 (started at 8.00). Nothing sign posted in the area, everyone wandering around aimlessly, poor communication between the stewards. Army blokes did all the security and were top notch - quick, efficient and friendly.

Food and drink was reasonably priced, pint of Heineken was £4.50. Queues were fucking enormous though. Good luck filling up an empty bottle with water, took me about 20 minutes as none of the stewards knew where the taps were.

We were up in the cheap seats which was actually a good thing as the skyline was spectacular as a backdrop - Big Ben, London Eye, Parliament, Nelson's Column and Downing Street. Atmosphere was pretty good, they were doing their best to turn it in to a party but don't think anyone had enough beer or was really up for it.

Spent a few hours in the National Gallery as well which was free entry (not sure if that is permanent or something special for the Olympics). Pity a number of sections were closed due to industrial action, all of whom are fucking wankers for going on strike during the Olympics when the whole world is watching.

:hmmm:

It's always free unless Leonardo's got a few sketches up! Been many times, it's a fantastic place to lose yourself for a few hours.

Great explanation

Generally, breakaway groups get caught - therefore the breakaways took a ballsy gamble to mess with the GB/Cav mass sprint finish tactic, the rotters.

Vino, the Kazakh winner, is one such ballsy racer, [ok Reg a former drugs cheat but if Cav had won would we have been saying he had been helped by Millar, a former drugs cheat?] and often used to attack the likes of Armstrong in the Tour de France and more often than not got reeled in.  This time his tactic paid off.

Usually about 8 or more peloton members share the work in closing down breakaway groups and the reticence of non GB-ers to come forward and share the work meant that the GB team had too much work on their shoulders to succeed.   

The Aussies got blamed as they had a sprinter who is pretty useful if not in Cav's league.  They had a chance of a medal however as they had a rider in the breakaway group (who came 6th) so why help Cav and their slightly less brilliant sprinter?

The Germans also had a good sprinter and they were negative in leaving all the work to GB but that has cost them (they can blame themselves for their failure to get a medal - but surely not be blamed for Cav not winning!).

With hindsight, GB's race was lost when none of them followed the second breakaway on Box Hill.

Kazakhstan had no support team and their bold tactic paid off.  Congratulations I say (although I respect Reg's point in fact) and also to the Colombian silver who had been in Cav's Sky team.

I went yesterday and saw Turkey vs Angola and USA vs Croatia in Women's basketball. The sport itself was pretty decent, having never seen a live match before, but the most impressive thing was the Olympic site itself; it really is an amazing place. There is a massive double sided screen in the river where we led out in what could be any beautifully maintained country park watching some swimming and road-race highlights - it didn't feel like you were in a city at all. Most of the buildings are fantastic pieces of design (most notably the Stadium and Velodrome) but even the temporary B'ball structure was fantastic. Loads of decent food, quality souveniers, and maps to help you get around. It's a big place, but no larger than Thorpe Park - we went absolutely everywhere and it never took ridiculous time. So many photos to be taken, as the mix of architecture and English countryside looked impressive throughout. My only complaint was the beer - £4.30 for a pint of Heineken (fine, to be expected), but also £4.30 for a 330ml bottle of the stuff at the bars that didn't have draught. If you find the draught bars, keep them close by for refills!

Also, you get a free zone 1-9 TravelCard with your ticket, so we parked at Osterley for £2 the entire day, and tubed it in on the Picadilly and Jubilee lines. Plenty of trains, and sat down for the entire journey.

Wish I had more tickets. It's a shame everywhere looks so empty yet there is no ticket availability. Sponsors should release some back if they aren't going to be used, and the pricing should have been cheaper throughout - the only tickets left are the ones so ridiculously priced that no one will (quite rightly) fork out to get them.

What makes it more impressive still is that 5 years ago you'd have found a post-industrial wasteland there.  I took a walk through that area about 10 years ago.  Had (and still have) a book of London walks and decided that day to take the train up from Wimbledon, where I was living, to do a 13 miler through the East End.  Stacks of history - Victorian pumping stations built like cathedrals, canals I never knew existed winding through back streets - but the area as a whole was largely derelict and pretty much bypassed by public transport.  The legacy thing is really important.  The area used to be a black hole...surrounded on all sides by suburbs and parks.  Now it's a proper part of London.  Very impressive.

Much of it was made from recycled materials as well. Something like 95% of everything demolished to make way was used in the new constructions.

The site seems very impressive from what i've seen on tv. What will become of it post the event though?

I've just got the book of walks down again to take a look at the route.  It was published in 2002, so obviously no reference to anything to do with the Olympic site.  I've traced the route I took though and it went right past where the stadium is now, pretty much over the site of the Mittal tower.

I'll stop geeking now.

Love it....incidently there are canals galore tucked away in London...usually in and arounf Industrial estates.

This is good.  The pics on the left hand side take me right back to that day I was there.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/interactive/2012/jul/27/olympic-regeneration-legacy-stratford

Good to hear the good reports about the site from those who have been.  I was in Sydney during the Paralympics there...and, while impressive enough, it did feel a little temporary/prefab to be honest.  The stadium itself was great though.  I spent pretty much a whole day there watching blade runners and wheelchair athletes.  It was (or felt like) basically me and 70,000 Australian school kids with free tickets.

Pull the slider to the right on the iron bridge pic....and look at the graffiti :eek:

Good pics.

That's brilliant!

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

shame about the nature reserve and the allotments that made way for a fucking McDonalds.

Well spotted  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

He just read the comments underneath

Well spotted.

Didn't think I'd watch many events but loving the cycling at the moment. Can't beleive my mum cycles these distances just to train!

Handball is a gem of a sport

I was at the Millennium on the first day for the women's footie and had a good day out, bar the food/drink prices and I'm off to the beach volleyball tomorrow.

Looks like GB are set to win the first medal in the womens road race at the moment as three are about 40 secs clear, with GB's Armitstead in the three.

Handball's a cracking sport, and I quite like the hockey too. Cycling's been interesting but let's be honest it's no surprise people are suddenly finding they enjoy it now that GB is enjoying some success. Can't beat a touch of glory hunting.

The rest has been a bit could take it or leave it at the moment.

HT at Mexico v Gabon 0-0.

Highlight so far is seeing another Town shirt

Got our first medal then, silver in the womens road race.

Women's gymnastics is pretty good, GB are doing quite well, the US is running the show at the minute.

Was just watching that WR. Tweedle was brilliant on those bars.

He.

I get it now. It's a witty little quip at over zealous copyrighting enforcing during the games.

Now for that joke that somebody told me last week......

Watching the women's syncro and the Ukrainians arses are lovely :)

Also a mention for the Italians, lovely!

This time next week I will be at the Olympic stadium gearing up to watch Usian and co in the 100m final :-)

Worth every penny ... Well not quite but be pretty good anyway!

I turned down corproate tickets for that. Got football at wembley saturday though

Paula Radcliffe is out as well. Shame

Women's vollyball is getting exciting

now that is a sport I could get behind. Superb stuff

Does Ian Thorpe bat for the other team? That's a lovely spray tan

I'm pretty sure he swims against the tide

Cracking goal by UAE

Nice to see the french win the relay. Beat the yanks in the final leg. Superb.

Whaaaaa?

Even the mrs enjoyed it. She enjoys a good perv.

The sport I've enjoyed the most so far is hockey. Good game, with tremendous skill.

Handball and beach volleyball for me

Am loving all of the BBC channels.  Spent most of the weekend flicking between different events.  Have enjoyed the cycling and swimming so far.  Can't wait for the athletics to start.

I thoroughly enjoyed cheering on Honduras this evening. It got farcical and nasty at times too which was great.

Venezuelan referees are amazing.

Enjoyed the Korean football.

Company policy, classed as a bribe, fucking decent one mind, not the normal free booze. or Chelsea tickets.

BBC coverage has been great - watched hockey, a few games of basketball, a bit of beach volleyball, GB football and even a bit of canoe slalom today. Great to be able to flick through it all!

Oh, and I was pretty happy seeing Federer, Serena Williams and Tsonga live at Wimbledon yesterday - as well as plenty of others. Never been to Wimbledon so was great to get tickets. Now I just need to find a way to get myself down to the Olympic Park some time this week!

Enjoyed the beach volleyball today - and actually enjoyed the sport as well as the obvious "perks".  Good to see Adlington get the bronze in the 400m as well.  

I'm really enjoying the Olympics.  Wife has finally given up trying to find something else to watch.  Sport all the way for the next couple of weeks.

I was looking forward to the beach volleyball, but find it really tacky, and not just the slightly too small bikinis, just stuff like a blast of a song every 20 seconds and worst of all organised mexican waves, shant bother with that again.

Been trying to get hold of some tickets for something in the Olympic Park. Been on the official website for around half an hour now - every time I click an event with tickets available, I select what I want then it tells me they're not available. A flaw in the website? I don't know.

Will try again in the morning in case anything new does become available!

Yup does that all the time. If you keep at it, sometimes the ticket becomes available though. Got my football and archery tickets!

Good to know!

Have enjoyed it so far, have watched a lot of the swimming, cycling and also Zara Dampney's ass.

The odd thing is, I couldn't give a fuck about the football and Team GB.

A personal favourite of mine. Especially at football. I know I'm in a big minority but why to people find it "such fun"?

My favourites so far have been the Fencing, beach volleyball (not just for Dampney!), Handball, and Hockey. I wish we'd played handball over here in school, looks like my kinda sport.

Yeah, that was happening with me yesterday. Was telling me there were stadium tickets available for next saturday, untill you clicked through to it and there wasn't. Ended up getting some paralympic ones though, so it's not all bad.

Is it possible to buy tickets which get you access to the park, but not into the stadiums? So you can wander around, get the atmosphere and watch it all on a big screen?

I haven't bothered to troll through to see is anyone has already mentioned it but Dampney's GQ picture is pretty good too!!

My journey in to work this morning was a dream.  No hold ups.  And a seat on both trains that I caught.

I'd like to thank the 'Olympic Family' for this.  Don't listen to all empty seat criticism from folk who applied for £ hundreds of tickets and got nothing.  Your selflessness in accepting those tickets and then not turning up has ensured that no other fucker gets a chance to either...thus reducing crowding on public transport infrastructure and improving my journey in to work.  Thank you so much.

The empty seats are mostly in the corporate sections aren't they? Same as at every other single sporting event

Apparently not.  The word in the press over the weekend is that it is mostly Olympic organisations/hangers on.  Sponsors would have paid through the nose (at least indirectly) for their tickets...so unlikely that they would not show, I'd have thought.

Sending the Brazilian Olympic hurdlers good luck........
Last time a Brazilian jumped over a barrier in London, the Metropolitan Police shot him

That Zara girl looks plain as fuck. Nice body but about a face that resembles a horse

Would this sum it up?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfEsmXbjcyg

Went to college with a girl that was boot ugly. I mean really, really ugly. The word on the grapevine was that she had a thing for me.

Thing is though she was a dancer and had a fantastic body, it was incredible. I tried to resist because her face really was that bad, poor girl. I tried not to be shallow but the ugliness truly was overpowering, which was a shame because she was a really nice person also. The lure of the exquisite chassis was finally too much for me though and I caved in. Even all the piss-taking in the world was worth a bounce on that body. I went for it.....

At which point it transpired she was never in the slightest bit interested all along. I got the pisstaking x10 and not even so much as a glimpse at her wares.

I trust you learnt the lesson, that to judge women, purely on the shape of their frames, is shallow and wrong.  ;)

Like a snapped Cam belt on a car.

Body work is great but the head is fucked

Butterface.

A great body.......but her face.....

This woman is competing in the volleyball.
Tee hee

Alas, Reg.

Had I stuck with my earlier notion of not wanting to go there because of her facial appearance, I would have saved myself a shit load of humiliation. My mates, of course, found the whole thing hilarious and milked every last drop out of it.

Was it the shame that forced you to move to Thailand?

Bobfoc.

Nah, that was sometime before I moved away. I had to endure the pisstaking in its entirety, from start to finish.

Got myself a ticket for tonight's handball! Seems that they update teh ticket website every half hour - grabbed this at 1.00am. Then a minute later I noticed there was a ticket spare for the GB match in the afternoon. Not to worry, my main aim was to get into the Park to have a look around!!


Don't think so. Might be possible for the paralympics? I was looking and didn't see anything.

They interviewed one of our young female divers this morning and asked how she prepared for her dive. When she said she liked getting herself wet first . . .

Jeez, just shouldn't be allowed that early in the morning!

They are (were) available but just for the first week.

So who is aroused by these female weightlifters from Kyrgyzstan etc?

Haven't watched any of it; do they have British bulldog and the egg and spoon race?

Admiring their snatch?

How heavy are their snatches?

Woke up this morning to find a programme for the olympics today with all the GB events today which was made by the missis  ;)

Just watched the men's gymnastics. I was jumping round the room when we got bronze and then went fucking ballistic when the final Japan result came in and it turned in to a silver. Incredible stuff. Feel a bit gay though as it's gymnastics.

The men's gymnastic team have been fucking amazing this afternoon - brilliant viewing, and an incredible achievement!

Couldn't agree more on all counts, bloody impressive stuff they can do.

Hold your horses, Nippon are appealing.

Always preferred the clean and jerk.  Although, it seems the wrong way round to me.

Japs win appeal. Shame but bronze a great achievement.

Fucksticks.

And that farce is why sports with judgement in the scoring system are flawed.

Indeed, that's why in my view they aren't proper sports

Just happened the the IOC guy from Japan was there to help with the ceremony...

Got back an hour ago from the Beach Volleyball, but I was up in the gods. Agree with SR about the PA relying to get the crowd up every 20 secs. Did enjoy the dancers though!!

GB just gone 2-0 up in the mens hockey against the Argies. Been a bit spicy. Wonder why?!

And a sit down protest in the Fencing, it's all getting tasty tonight.

Also in defence of all sports with judging systems (as I compete in one) I can't see a major difference between relying on the judgement call of a panel (note panel, not one) of judges and relying on a human official refereeing as almost every sport does.

I didn't realise that you did compete in sport with judges.  Which one?

(Although I did judge you when you let that back pass in a few years ago  ;))

I think there's more judgement in scoring things like gymnastics and diving than boxing though isn't there? You can see clearly if someones twatted someone else in the head. It's a bit harder to notice how many revolutions someones done in the air

Thought they judged the diving well earlier. And they only had one look at it

This is amazing

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19054875

Exactly! Judged sports should really be downgraded as hobbies. Skillful hobbies yes, something 99% of us can't do. But hobbies just the same.

The Mrs used to be a tramampolinist, I have this argument a lot.

That is amazing.

But they still lost :)

There is something vey appealing about the ladies handball game between Norway and Sweden but I can't quite put my finger on it

You'd be divorced in record time if you did

You'd be surprised. Watch the India v Brazil boxing from earlier if you can...


Kickboxing, not terribly well. I suppose I'm better at it than I am at goalkeeping though.

Ladies Volleyball now having a great game so far.

I'm knackered, but can't leave the volleyball.  We're playing brilliantly.

Great win for the ladies 52 places between them in world rankings and came back from being behind twice.

Also i believe Lucy Wicks is from swindon.

I was there for it, along with loads of crazy Norwegians, each armed with a bell which they rang almost non-stop. Was great to watch the handball though.

those scandi types sure do enjoy their handball, i'd say the bar i work in over the winter has it's busiest afternoon when it's the world cup final of handball, usually full to bursting point with danish.  busier even than the six nations, which for an irish pub is amazing

I'm off to watch Women's football this afternoon at Cardiff, Japan V S.Africa. This is what the olympics is all about..... :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Am I imagining this, or has the Lisa Simpson blow job logo been quietly dropped by the Games organisers after the negative press?  The 'London 2012' graphic is everywhere in the venues, but not much sign of Lisa.

What Lisa Simpson Blowjob logo? I've not seen it.

It's the official Olympic logo

http://2012olympicsblog.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/london-2012-logo-lisa-bart-simpson.png

I'm sure you have.

[url width=460 height=500]http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/Pictures/2007/06/05/olympics460.jpg[/url]

 :doh: What a numpty haha

The logo is everywhere - venues, TV screens, merchandise...

Yeah and it's proper shit.

The mascot is disgusting as well. Who thought a one-eyed alien was a good idea for a mascot.

not many women in the women's gymnastics

Believe it or not all but 1 of the chinese team are 20 years old.

So they say..

Great result for the women's football team, and they thoroughly deserved it. The defence did a great job, and they created numerous chances on the counter. Could have been 2-0 but missed a penalty - not sure why the centre back wasn't sent off for the foul.

Canada next in the QF on Friday. Shame it's at Coventry really.

Not for me...need to look into that.

I just bought two tickets on a whim! Seem to be plenty left although I wouldn't leave it too long!

Cycling back on tomorrow. The boss has given the OK for us to watch at work, so that's my afternoon sorted.

And people complain about the public sector.....pfffttt!

(What time is Bradley Wiggins due off?)

It starts at 14:15.

Never realised how great the public sector was until I got a contracting in it ... Now I never want to leave! HAHAHA

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19072677

Bloody cheats.

Those that paid money to watch that farce must be livid. They've got to be chucked out

Womens pairs rowing... could it be our first Gold?

if they keep going it seems so

woo

It's all about the Union Flag in that race!

First gold for us well done  :D

And a camel toe shot as an added bonus

Off to see if I can watch some of the time trials this afternoon.

Watched the womens road race from the top of Box Hill, the atmos was amazing.

Great race for the GB pair - absolutely smashed it!

Eight badminton players thrown out of the tournament. Quite right too. Good to see a sporting body taking some decisive action.

Sort of agree about the badminton but is it much different to what the swimmers do? Is it any different to what the Japan ladies did in the football yesterday.


Think you need to be careful when ou start disqualifying teams for these type of things.

Is it still on? When's the closing ceremony?

Its not the same at all. The badminton players were actively trying to lose, swimmers slow down to conserve energy.

But were they not also trying to give themselves the best chance to win the gold, which is what they are there for? It was very unsporting and can understand why paying spectators were a bit hacked off but don't think they are as outright villainous as people are making them out.

Right then, c'mon Wiggo.

They also do it to try and ensure a better lane

The best lanes in the middle go to the faster swimmers as they are less effected by the waves created compared to outer lanes

That all depends on what the rules say. Maybe badminton/Olympics has a specific "try your best" clause which they clearly weren't.

That said, I thoroughly approved of STFC v Walsall last 15 minutes when we got promoted under Luggy.

Wiggins is doing well and so is Froome. Looking good.

Hearing that Wiggins is 5 seconds off the pace.  I'm not sure if this is serious or not.  And I wouldn't trust the commentators anyway after last Saturday's debacle where they were claiming until late on that the British riders were 'controlling the race perfectly' when, clearly, they weren't.

Wiggins has a radio and is getting fed time checks from the team car. He'll be fine.

Did they make it so obvious though...?  ;) (Unlike Germany vs Austria 1982)

"At 18.4km mark... he clocks 11.23 seconds faster than Tony Martin " BBC - Martin was fastest.

11 seconds ahead at the second check.

Also, this is the best moment of the olympics so far


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwH5y5lPvvk

22 seconds now with about 14km to go.

Barring a a mechanic issue it looks like Wiggo has it, Froome looks good for a bronze

WIGGINS PROVING THAT MODS RULE

Smashed it.

Gold In the bag for Wiggy

Good day for Britain today :D

The highest rally in the game was 4 FFS thats like Phelps doing the 200m freestyle in 10 minutes. What about the people that paid money for this? Should'nt they be garenteed that atleast the athletes compete to the best of there ability.

And swimming cant be considered in this bracket. its all about times and if you know that you are faster than the majority then you dont have to swim as fast you would when the competition is greater.

Another Gold tonight in the pool i reckon.

Great performance by Wiggins and also Chris Froome.

Im looking forward to the 200m Breaststroke final. Is this the one you mean?

Yep....Jamieson to win.

Willis could also get a medal, 3rd fastest qualifier.

What time is that on tonight?

Swimming starts at 7.30.

Cheers sam

Do the GB team need to win tonight to guarantee going through or is a draw good enough?

Draw will do...

Womans match at Coventry on Friday is a sell out.

Cheers.

Jamieson gets a silver, loss to a new world record no disgrace there.

Bath lads, good work. Decent haul today, has anyone ever had a better few weeks in Sport than Bradley Wiggins?

Took this today - bloody hard to take a pic of a moving target

[url width=900 height=675]http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q486/Bewster/P1000677.jpg[/url]

Where we're you on the course?

We were near Esher & it was a brilliant atmosphere.

I tried to take some photos, but Wiggo was almost too fast to get as he came passed us.

Mag wheels but no stunt pegs. Blood amateur!

The beach Volleyball hand signals have been revealed, though I'm still a little confused and will have to go back and have another look or 3 to see if i can understand them,  anyone else having this problem?


http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/photos/beach-volley-what-do-those-hand-signals-mean-slideshow/beach-volleyball-hand-signals-photo-1343814990.html (http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/photos/beach-volley-what-do-those-hand-signals-mean-slideshow/beach-volleyball-hand-signals-photo-1343814990.html)

How does Wiggins apply his Cornflakes bike reflectors?

[url width=200 height=273]http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-ash2/50556_247477302766_1616466_n.jpg[/url]

I was just off the A3 Esher/Cobham turning on the A245 towards Byfleet. Great time

Cool, we got the train into Esher & were watching near the Cafe Rouge on the A307 just down from the train station.

Not knowing the area that well we weren't sure where would be a decent place to watch, so we went to Esher as there were several parts of the course nearby.

Very similar to us, the wife and kids picked me up from work in Chichester at 12.30 and drove towards Esher, the roads were closed so just parked up and watched. Couldn't have been easier.

They crossed the line. Not playing their best is one thing but deliberately throwing the game is too much. They were even warned by the match referee and then carried on playing the same. You can't allow that can't of behaviour and throwing them all out of the competition was the right thing to do, if only to send a message out to everyone that it won't be tolerated.

Track cycling starts today - yay. Good chances of medals in the team sprints, both mens and womens finals around 1800 tonight I think.

Worked with his mum a couple of years back. Made up for both him and her!

Am I right in thinking that BMXing is in the Olympics? If it is when is it on?

Yes. And Mountain Biking. Don't know the schedule though, sorry.

No worries, I'm looking forward to those two events, as well.

Try the BEEB website - its got everything on it

Sounds like we just pipped by South Africa in the rowing, we got another silver though, no to shabby.

Very close indeed, with 200 left I thought it was GB all the way, cant fault the effort. Roll on The Velodrome

Won Gold and Silver in the canoe salom.

Just about to clinch gold in clay pigeon shooting too.

GB women have just set a world record in the team sprint  :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

...which was immediately broken by the Chinese.

China have just beat it.  Cunts!  :smugfu: :smugfu: :smugfu:

I'm led to believe its a new event so probably is going to get broken a load of times today!

Yea, China broke the world record again.

And we're about to be disqualified...

Yep we've been disqualified.

We should cancel the rest of the Olympics in protest.  That'll show 'em.

New WR for GB men in the Cycling.

x2

The men's sprinters have just broke another WR

Men's team sprinter break their own WR and claim gold.

And they just beat their own WR and won gold. We're quite good at cycling, aren't we?

I have listened on the radio while driving.

I have loved the sound of he crowds.....woman/kids as well as men...it is an exited sound rather than the football crowd sound that always seems to have an angry edge.

For what it is worth i have thoroughly enjoyed it so far....far more than i thought i would.

Doesn't Michael Phelps seem a thoroughly nice fella

So does Thorpe

I've really enjoyed it so far. Gibbons medal was emotional.

The Chinese girl swimming in today's final was expected to smash the world record by 10 seconds, Chi Ting Twat said she was very optimistic she would break more records....... :)

Got a spare ticket for the game at Coventry tomorrow (Friday) night. GB women v Canada. PM me if interested!

Had the pleasure of watching women's beach volley ball in 3D last night - managed to fully justify to myself the expenditure on the 60" 3D plasma based on this alone - the missus wasn't convinced until the mens gymnastics came on... and then she was ;)

Disappointed with Hindes comments post the cycling team's gold, well disappointed to hear the crash was a pre-planned tactic.  I saw the interview and Hoy's head shake as the young lad was revealing all gave it away.

http://www.foxsports.com.au/olympic-games/cycling-great-sir-chris-hoy-angry-after-teammates-admission/story-fn5k3iok-1226442226016

As I understand it he said he made a shit start so threw it on the ground to force a restart.

Disappointing. No idea if this is normal practice in this event under those circumstances or not though.

Yeah that's pretty much it Batch. As he was telling the beeb journalist you could just see Hoy's shaking his head thinking 'why are you saying this?'.

I'm sure tactics like this are common place at the top level, but keep your mouth shut or at least say what your meant to say.

I think Lineker might disagree about Thorpe being a nice bloke  :)

Just becos he's  :gay: doesn't stop him being a nice bloke

Also, Clare Balding is an impressive presenter - I like her

He changed the story in the press conference after the race stating that his wheel slipped which caused him to fall off.  Hoy's face in the original interview was classic  :headhurts:

Have I missed something here?

I originally thought he was trying to joke about falling off on purpose and as he is German the humour completely failed.

Lineker interviewed Thorpe a couple of times earlier this week, and the chemistry was 'a little awkward' to say the least, Thorpe looking decidedly unimpressed by Lineker's 'cheap gags' At one point I thought Thorpe was going to thump him.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/london-2012/9441775/London-2012-viewers-verdicts-on-BBC-sports-presenters.html

Great start from Ennis in the hurdles, and Aldama into the triple jump final. Good morning all!

Ennis' time was equal to the gold medal hurdle time in Beijing - for the actual hurdles. And it beat the actual hurdles GB national record. In comparison, our only shot-putter finished 29th out of 30, and hence didn't qualify for the final. Why and how is he allowed to do this as a job when he's patently rubbish at it? Pay Ennis double, and send him down the Job Centre.

Did I notice an iraqi woman in the 100m prelims called abdul razak?  Didnt he play for us for a bit?

I get the impression that Thorpe can be a bit precious generally, to tell the truth.  There was even a moment last night at the swimming where he bristled at Clare Balding when she mentioned that he had had dinner with Michael Phelps' mother the previous evening.

Just won some more gold in the skulling.

Skull fucked!!! :clap:

I think that the rules allow the Brits to enter every event, regardless of ability.  So the shot putter may not have usually qualified, in which case finishing last but one may actually be an achievement!

Is it just me or do a lot of our medal winners appear to come from the colonies? Lots of Jocks seem to be winning medals

Ennis going well in the high jump too! Great stuff!

That was Hamdi Razak.

Gold No 7...and another WR for the Mens team persuit

That was pretty spectacular

This GB cycling team is awesome. So dominant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcmoRy444MY

I don't know if this has been posted yet but it's quite funny so here you go.

Pendleton wins gold no.8

Puts us 3rd in the medal table aswell.

Cant wait for the track and field to start as for me thats when the proper Olympics start.

Things like Cycling, Rowing and Swimming are all good and well, but there are too many events which are too similar and you find that some athlethes can get mutiple medals in one Olympics

You're a ray of sunshine :)

They started today...


Like they do in athletics. Bolt will go in the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay...

In track and field probably the most an athlete can win is 3 medals.  Swimming especially, most of the athletes can win 7-8 medals if good enough

Murray's just won the first set against Djokovic.

Where's Thorpey at the swimming - hissy fit?

Adlington Gets Bronze.

Never knew Peter Crouch was representing us at ping pong!

[url width=620 height=388]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02031/pitchford_2031492b.jpg[/url]

He has another match tonight in the mixed doubles which was supposed to start at 8pm

Iffys sister no where in the 100 metres

Murray beats Djokovic to get into the final.

I'm going to watch handball tomorrow. Decided not to waste my free weekend :)

We are going to the Athletics (morning session) tomorrow.

We get the Men's 100m first round & the long jump & Javelin from the Heptathlon.

Early start but really looking forward to it.

Really wanted that session Posh. Put in for it in the draw and tried to buy during the ticket dumps of the last few days. No luck so when the handball came up I took it as better than nothing!

I'm on the 6.11 from Swindon :) Can't find my camera charger though :(, should get a few clicks before battery death...

Hope you enjoy your day, we have enjoyed our events so far, although Surrey is as close as we have got to London.

It will be nice to get into the Olympic Park. I was out last night with some friends who have been to Water Polo & Basketball who said the atmosphere was brilliant.

What happened to sitting around in your pants eating pot noodles?!

I am disappoint.

Yeah, you too.

Team GB are playing at Handball, they aren't too good but I'm hoping the atmosphere makes up for it

I'm off to Mexico v Senegal. I'll try and stay a bit sober to do some scouting.

change of plan.

Also I ditched the pot noodle and had a meal that consisted entirely of meat I cooked on the BBQ. Chinese belly pork, burgers and sirloin steak.

In your face vegetables.

Loads of tickets got put on tonight, though they all seem to have been snapped up quickly, as expected.

Been waiting for 20 minutes to see if my request for wrestling tickets for sunday has worked

Fine. I'll have to balance out the man points by attempting an oil & filter change on the car tomorrow.

Got through to the checkout screen! Couldn't find my wallet, and the clock was ticking, so had to guess at what my security code was.

Got it wrong. Got to start again now. Annoyed

Mexico's #11 is pretty good. Although I'm not sure another winger is what we need.

Looking forward to Murray v Federer on Sunday!!!

Can I buy the tickets off you? I will triple what you paid for them.

The volunteers, and there are bloody millions of them, all over London - are absolute superstars.

Meanwhile in other news, I expected there to be me, the kids and a few men and dogs at Wembley for Korea - Gabon the other afternoon....but it was just the 77,000. 

Volleyball was good fun and I'm really looking forward to the Olympic Park and some hockey on Monday - anyone know what the queues for the bullet train from St Pancras are like?

Saw the Gabon game as well..

Looking forward to the South Korea vs GBR football game today.

No prizes for guessing who I'll be supporting (me being of korean blood)

But please.. I welcome the abuse IF Korea lose today.

Getting ready to spit roast a poodle later, eh!

That's only if we win, dear.

I like the new Korean Not Poodle...just add boiling water.

 :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Just on the way home after watching the Athletics.

Olympic Stadium was very good & the organisation is excellent.

You mean pot right?

Oh I gotcha.

Good one Posh...glad you had a good day.

The Highlight?

The reception for Ennis was brilliant.

Also the buzz when Bolt came out to warm up. And even though he was slower than some of the others he just has an aura about him.

Hard to pick just one thing to be honest, but if pushed it would probably be seeing Bolt run in the Olympics.

Could you see it being a decent football stadium though

Looked nice from the outside ! Handball was great. Brilliant seats, GB aren't of the same standard as others but it didn't matter so much. The second game was South Korea v Serbia and was reasonably close.

Very impressed with the Olympic Park. Been to the Sydney site and London is pretty similar standard, and that's a compliment.

Agree the organisation was great. Worst bit was the 6.11->Paddington was rammed and I didn't have a reserved seat. Everything else was great. Even the security check in was only a 5-10 minute wait.

Briefly spoke to a Trinidad and Tobago 4x100 runner on the tube too. Not sure who but she was with this team
mate:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/athletes/5683364d-04f0-4055-b822-0eeffe9703c3

Might put a couple of pics up later.

This cycling sprint is quality. I've never seen this before. I'm going to suggest adding some mario kart banana skins and explosive turtles and we've got a sport to be reckoned with

Andy Murray & Laura Robson have just got through to the mixed doubles final. Meaning Murray is guaranteed 2 medals.

It seems we're actually quite good at this sports thing!

Tennis was very entertaining actually, and not just because Sabine Lisicki is rather pretty.

Farah and Ennis tonight, could be a brilliant evening.

Does anyone have the faintest idea what the cycling Omnium is about?

It's not that hard to understand, though difficult to keep track of without a noticeable scoreboard of any kind.

They ride around for 120 laps. Every 10th lap is a sprint, in which their positions are taken at the end of it, and they get points for that position on that lap. They also get points if they lap the rest of the field, and points taken off for being lapped.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w30yf?tc=2012-08-04T15%3A06%3A54-00%3A00

That might well be the worst refereeing decision I've ever seen. And I've seen Rob Styles.

Head high kung fu kick. Nearly as bad as Schumacher's challenge on Battiston in the '82 WC Semi.

Olympic Rings

[url width=400 height=300]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r66/batch_2001/Olympics%20London%202012/colour_rings.jpg[/url]

Adlington being interviewed by Evans

[url width=400 height=300]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r66/batch_2001/Olympics%20London%202012/adders_evans.jpg[/url]

Handball

[url width=400 height=300]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r66/batch_2001/Olympics%20London%202012/hb4.jpg[/url]

Orbit, Stadium and Velodrome

[url width=300 height=400]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r66/batch_2001/Olympics%20London%202012/orbit.jpg[/url]

[url width=400 height=300]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r66/batch_2001/Olympics%20London%202012/stadium.jpg[/url]

[url width=400 height=300]http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r66/batch_2001/Olympics%20London%202012/velo.jpg[/url]

Excelent pics, Batch!!!!

Gold number 11. Women's pursuit...and another WR in 'The Pringle'.

I may not be a fan of road cycling, but these track events are brilliant.

love the track cycling. so fast

The Omnium consists of 6 different events, the points race (which Dave referred to earlier), individual pursuit, scratch race, time trial, elimination race and a 250m flying lap.

The winner of each discipline is awarded 1 point, with second getting 2, third 3 and so on. After the 6 events, the rider with least points wins.

I must admit I was a bit "meh" about the games - but I have watched so much of it, staying up late to watch stuff that would only be on eurosport - and its getting better and better - loving it.

Have to agree apart from the staying up late bit. The cycling has been awesome, we are shit hot

I see Ennis is on at 2059, is Farrah on after that? Any other highlights this evening, that don't involve the football?

Might have a shout at another medal in the Long jump, Rutherford gone into the lead with his second effort - on at the moment

Farah 9:15, Long Jump now and women's 100m tonight late on.

Yeah watching the long jump now on ch.460, well flicking between bbc1 and 460. Can't see Rutherford's jump being a winning one, needs to go longer.

Jess Ennis has basically guranteed a gold medal.

Won it it in some style

Brilliant

Absolutely, didn't need to win the 800m but to take it on the home straight was fantastic. Give her all the honours she can carry...

And now for Mo, and a 1-2 in the Long Jump...

Rutherford gold too, two Track and Field Golds in half an hour, this is unbelievable. Come on Mo!

Rutherford's got gold in the long jump....

Certainly helps that we're winning so many medals. I'm sure it was never like this when I was a kid.  To be 3rd in the medals table behind two countries with populations of 300m+ and 1,300m+ is astoundingly good. We must be doing something right.

Mostly comes down to lottery funding.

Brilliant stuff.  I haven't heard his name mentioned a great deal in the build up to the Olympics, all the attention has been on Ennis this evening and he's quietly gone about his business and got gold.  Fair play.

And Mo's done it....

Gold for Somalia !!!

I get the impression Mo had a lot more left in the tank.

GO MO  :clap:

I'm genuinely getting a bit teary here. I think it's Farah's family turning up that's done that...what a night!

Not a bad day for us, 6 gold medals.

Oh fuck off.

What a fantastic day and night for British sport.  Absolutely wonderful and definitely worth turning down an invite out tonight for!

This has been fucking brilliant.

It's dust in my eye I tell you.

Text from my mate who works at Fitness First: to put Farah into perspective he's just averaged 22kph for 28 mins. The top speed of a FF treadmill is 21 kph. That is ridiculous.

I wasn't massively looking forward to the games before they started, but they've been utterly enthralling and I'm hooked. I've watched nothing but sport for the last week and there's still another week to go!

As Ardiles said above, for a small island nation our success compared to the Americans and Chinese is fantastic.

TeamGB has just gone to pens on BBC3 too.

PENALTIES

GB Football has gone to penalties. Winning a penalty shoot out would stretch tonight beyond the realms of belief.

Edit: May I get in the "Beckham would have scored a penalty" message before anyone else does?

They've already missed one during the game.

I think the fact there was a freekick in the last minute of extra time showed why he shoulda been there! ;)

I fucking hate it when they piss about with their run-ups. Stupid Chelsea cunt.

Go out by penalties....again !!!

Fuck sake

Well, on the bright side, that has confirmed that I didn't wake up this morning in a parallel universe.

Beckham woulda scored it.

FUCK OFF

If we can't break the penalty jinx on a night like tonight, it really is never going to happen!

http://twitpic.com/7l917b

Someone's prepared that in advance but top work.

When was the last time the Great British football team went out on penalties?

After a day like today, I really couldn't give a flying one about the footie. 

I blame the welsh

Agreed.  Hence the reason why we only all knew what was happening because BBC1 went direct to it live following the athletics!  I can't imagine many people actually watched the game?

See that's why I hate the British football idea even more. No one really gives a fuck about the British team yet, despite what anyone says, we have just given the corrupt untrustworthy bastards at fifa a precedent of a British team. Can't say how happy I am that no Scottish players were involved.  Having said that I expect the welsh wouldn't give a shit if an English and Welsh side appeared in years to come. So if Wales disappears from the international map, good.

Without doubt the greatest day in British sporting history watched all 6 gold medals live just captivating television and there is still another week left

That's all I'll say on the footie, as it shouldn't detract from the rest of the day. Great day in British Olympic history.

According to the Beeb, today was the most successful for Britain in the Olympics for 104 years.

Brilliant day

Guess I picked the wrong evening to go watch Ted! bring on the highlights.


FFS! Was hoping for a GB v Brazil semi-final as I'm at Old Trafford Tuesday. Ah well, seeing Brazil is better than it could be.

I'm really happy we're out of the football, but not cos of the British Team idea.

Compared to the sporting drama we've seen today, I reckon football is basically pretty shit entertainment which is only interesting if I really,really want one side to win. Given the incredible commitment and dedication athletes have to make for a fraction of the money that footballers get, footballers really aren't fit to lick the boots of most proper athletes.

Maybe I'll change my mind after a few games, who knows,,

I don't normally get really patriotic about Britain but tonight I felt something.

Spot on mate!

I agree with you. But for a lot of people it was the only way to get anywhere near the Olympics.

Really good point

Well I'm glad you guys are happy about the Olympics.

I'm happy South Korea beat Great Britain WOOHOOO.

Now to beat Brazil and Japan in the final.

Football takes a verbal battering everytime there is a great moment in other sports. Come September most of the critics are talking football non-stop and cannot remember the name of the long jumper who took gold.

The majority of us only see the final seconds/minutes of years of hard work therefore we witness the BIG moment and nothing else. In sports like football we witness pretty much everything over a season - the good, the terrible and everything in between.

Footballers are athletes, they work hard to get where they are.

Personally I think it's sad that we always have to compare every sporting moment with football. We help fund the mega-wages.

Couldnt care lass about the gb team in football, but enjoyed the mexico win today, first time in many hundreds of games I've been a neutral, the game went so quick and I never got stressed once. Bizzarely, at 90 mins around 10-20 per cent of the crowd went home, really weird.

That is really weird

No one has tickets for the Semi final at Old Trafford spare do they?

What a day.  Fuck the football when you get moments like we did today.

There's still £125 tickets left.  ;)

Yeah I saw that.. Hoping that people wanted to sell their tickets back after GB lost today!
125 pounds is a bit too much, seeing I'd have to make the trip to Manchester anyway  :(

And no-one's mentioned the tennis, and two more medals to come there, be they silver or gold.....

Is there any chance Ennis could be persuaded to run in the individual 100m hurdles?

Off down to Stratford today for the womens' basketball (all we could get). I think it will be just as good watching what's going on on the big screens outside the stadium.

Yes, she said that she would see how she felt today and then make a decision. How amazing would that be if she medaled in that as well??

With regards to the football, it shouldn't even be there. The Olympics should be the pinnacle event for every sport and, if it's not, serious questions need to be asked. Bit like Tennis...

Just said on SSN that she wouldn't be doing it.

You could say all you like, it won't change the fact that people are just not interested. People can try to be interested, I know that I did, but it doesn't make it so. It would have been nice to get another gold but, to be frank, the interest stops there.

A tweet from Stan Collymore:

Stan Collymore ‏@StanCollymore
FA/Prem/players take note! Football fans arent feeling any love from us as an industry! Need to learn from this Olympics.The truth.

I still think it's a typical 'British' style moan. We couldn't possibly celebrate great sporting achievements without moaning about people who have nothing to do with the work of Rutherford, Farah, Ennis and the rest.

News reports were suggesting that football was going to experience a decline when Jonny Wilkinson kicked that drop goal in 2003 and when the cricketers won the Ashes for the first time in ages. Now Great Britain does well in the Olympics and all of a sudden it's "hang you heads in shame footballers".

I'm watching and enjoying the Olympics but I'm no different to most people when I say I couldn't give a monkeys about next years Munich rowing regatta or the next track and field event at Crystal Palace.

In football, my team won a trophy this year and are potentially 'on the up', the football industry is just fine for me at the moment!

Moaning?

Nobody's moaning, just not interested. How many people even know who we lost to? I don't, and I even tried watching it for a while.

I'm not referring to the Team GB football team. I don't care about them in any way, shape or form. I'm referring to the general comments that people are making about how super-duper all the athletes are and how our "overpaid" footballers are everything what's wrong with the world.

People are just enjoying the excitement and the success. What's wrong with that?

What would you rather people do?

It would be nice if these Olympics were a watershed moment for sport. It won't be, as like it's been stated above get to mid September and the media will be hyping up the football as they always do. It's a shame people are so easily led by the media, they have so much control over the nation. 

I hope the popularity in 'minority' sports such as cycling continue and lead to a diversification of media coverage that has been monopolised by football in the last few years.

I'm not criticising people who are enjoying the excitement and success and I don't think I've said anything to indicate that. I'm saying that people should just try to enjoy all of this without having moan and make comparisons with sports (football) that have nothing to do with what they're watching elsewhere.

These guys deserve all the praise they're currently getting and the British population have every reason to enjoy events like what happened last night.

I've not read a newspaper in years jan, yet I'm still thoroughly enjoying it all.

I did notice how the long jumper got so little glory and that is no doubt media influenced but still, the media played no part in my enjoying the events. I only put it on initially because I had nothing else to do.

But that's the point. Perhaps the public are a bit tired of reading about the Terrys, Ferdinands, Bartons etc of this world who get paid more in a week than most earn in a year yet still have no notion of being a role model and behave like total arseholes. When people see how much training, personal sacrifice, discipline etc goes in to winning a gold medal I think it's hardly surprising that over paid, pampered footballers don't compare favourably in the court of public opinion right now. Of course, not all footballers earn the cash or misbehave but football authorities and certain top players do need to think more about their responsibilities to football as a sport.

But why compare them at all? I tell you what pay these athletes what footballers get and then see them change,it is life it happens.

Of course athletes are different to footballers,i would hazard a guess that it also helps that every crowd member is behind them,if they had to put up with fans singing your wife takes it up the ass or your mums a slag or black players having you know what you are sang at them i would think they probably would not be so fan friendly either.

We had a prime example last night actually,Sturridge missed a penalty and received dog abuse for being a arrogant money grabbing cunt etc The lad battled viral meningitis for fucksake to take part in these games and represent gb he was gutted at the end but as per usuall the tribal footbal fan couldn't give a shit about the facts and decided to go on the attack.

Until athletes have to take that kind of shit they will happy clappy people i suppose.

This is not a dig at them as what they have done is amazing but the whole comparison thing really get's on my tits.

Another gold then

in?

Some rowing event. Two women.

Are you sure about this?

I watched it

Or was it a re-run

think you were watching a repeat. pretty sure rowing finished yesterday

Oh

Sounds like a cracking way to boost the medal count to me.  Keep watching Flash!

Another Silver in the sailing - but by God how boring a sport to watch is that!

They could spice it up with cannons and broadsides...

I just watched that sailing.  Threw away the gold in the last 30 seconds.

But yes, it is boring to watch.

same as the marathon, only worth watching the last mile.

Really disappointed, they were too worried about the Brazilians and the bloody Swedes seized the opportunity.

Same thing is now happening in the Ainslie race.  Busy trying to stay ahead of the Dane and if the Dutch bloke moves up a place he wins overall.  Bloody British wind seems to be cocking it up for them all!

Ainslie wins gold no. 15

Ben Ainsley wins Gold

That is probably is best ever Olympic win considering where he was in the first few races.  A superb gold.

Still remember that in his first two Olympics, his main rival was a Brazilian called Scheidt..

Murray wins the first set and is playing brilliantly.

Struggling a bit to hold this service game though. 

Anyone else think Federer looks like Tarantino

No.

Murray playing a blinder at the moment

IF Murray can win this match it could be the trigger for a few slam wins.

But this is Fed, can't take anything for granted.

Federer's won a game !!!

Fed, as in Federer, as in the greatest tennis player that ever lived. He's come back from 2 sets down before.

Yeah.

I was a tad slow there. Never mind, I'll go back to sleep now.

Won the second set now aswell. Come on Andy win the third.

I can't believe how effortless (so far, touch wood) this looks for Murray

Murray breaks Federer in the third....

Gold so close....Murray has been superb.

Murray serves for gold...

Silver and Bronze in Pummel Horse!!!!

Murray wins AT Wimbledon !!!

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssss! Get in Andy Murray. Destroyed him. Destroyed.

Brilliant viewing

These Olympics just remind me how i'm shit at pretty much every sport I attempt.

Tried tiddlywinks?

I certainly didn't anticipate a gold in the tennis.  Fabulous performance from Murray.

Louis Smith just missed out a gold in the pummel by the tiniest of margins.  Same overall score as the winner, but slightly lower on execution.  Silver and Bronze though, brilliant stuff.


I haven't moved from my seat in over 3 hours and there's hours more to come.  The Olympics are turning me into a lazy cow  :D

yes.

The Swiss guy from the IOC obviously thought he was going to present the gold to Federer...

Meh

Is that aimed at the Murray win or the Olympics in general Tans?

Federer:


What a gent.

I'm getting old, and I'm a cripple at the moment, but for some sad reason this whole event has made me want to win a medal or trophy or something - I haven't won anything since an U16 5-a-side runners up medal in 2000!

Do a half marathon or a 10k. Most give you a medal just for taking part.

The love in for murray, fair play for winning but the majority of people praising him now fucking hated him at wimbledon!

Did they? Who?

You know what i mean, the people that were slagging him for being a jock now loving him because he was team gb

I don't to be honest, most people wanted Murray to do well at Wimbledon...

Yeah, but tans hates everybody.

Murray played brilliantly (from the brief clips that I saw). Fed obviously doesn't play so well when there's no money or ranking points involved.

There were ranking points available though, not as much for a slam though.

A lot of people saying Fed allowed murray to win, thats a load of crap, Fed is one of the most professional players out there, he gave 100% out there and got beat but a fantastic murray

Some more tickets have just come up... I'm off to watch some Handball on Wednesday.

I'm with tans - can't stand Murray whether he plays for himself, the Jocks or Team GB.

The crowd have only just come alive in the Doubles tennis.  There seems to be quite alot of empty seats as well.  They weren't there in the mens final, so where have people disappeared to?

Yeah, but you hate everybody too.

I don't think I will ever understand all the Murray hate.

Murray only got silver in the mixed doubles, the cunt.

Good stuff. Wish I didn't have this work lark. I'd love to go to another event.

First the Aussies:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/rowing/9442936/London-2012-Olympics-Whingeing-Aussies-bewail-the-Eton-roar-leaves-Australians-foundering.html

Now the Kermits:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9454104/French-sour-grapes-over-GB-Olympic-success.html

We must be doing quite well then...

To be fair the French have a point about the unsportsmanlike antics of the anglo-german cyclist.  If the badminton players were chucked out for not participating in the Olympic spirit I think Hindes was treading a very thin line, as you could tell from Hoy's reaction during the interview.

Reading the Telegraph re:Australian rowers it's hardly having a go at Great Britain's success at the games is it. I thought it was a pretty poor article more than anything.



Also just to add thank God Murray/Robson didn't win the tennis, Robson getting gold would have been a travesty, a truly awful tennis player.  Silver's good enough for her.

Haha, fuck the French. And the Aussies.

They seem to have forgotten Pendleton's disqualification then.

Besides, they can take away those two golds and we'd still be way ahead.

We could learn a lot from Australians, they have a great attitude to life I think, well the ones I've met.  As for the french, they take a bit of work but again a great country and great people.

Don't get the hatred of countries and their people, I find most nationalities alright on the whole, even Americans.

A lot of national stereotypes do actually ring true.

That's actually a really daft comment from the Ozzie's about the noise.

They are effectively saying atmosphere was 'too' good.

*Edit

Actually, it may just be the press twisting it. They could have just been answering a question:

Q: What was the atmosphere like?
A: It was so loud we could hardly hear each other.

I didn't mean the entire nations, just their comments.

Indeed, I lived in Germany for a few years in my previous job and much of the '10 German Bombers' stuff that emanates from this country often makes me cringe. That said it doesn't mean we can't poke a little fun at each other during major sporting events does it?

As Batch says fuck the Kermits...

The French are still pissed off we won the bid to host these Olympics.

Australians in whingeing shock.

They are a happy bunch when they are winning, otherwise grumpier than your average grumpy person.

Remember they were the bunch that thought it was hilarious to call no ball every time Muralia came into bowl, but got very upset when the Barmy Army did the same to Brett Lee.

Fuck 'em.  :)

It's OK to take the piss out of Australians. They are up for the banter and can give as good as they take.

The Aussie's always have a moan when they lose... and I don't mind that. Their attitude to sport is fantastic; losing is not good, taking part doesn't count, and being a good loser is frowned upon.

Bet she'd still whup your arse, besides she's still only 18

Handball!

Easy for Bolt

Does anyone else find Bolt a bit scary?

I think it's great to hear the stadium singing the National Anthem during the medal ceremonies.

Even at the Tennis they sang it after Murray won.

Can't remember it happening at any previous games

The stadium looks impressive as well.

A shame it won't be suitable for football.

You should be better at fishing than that at your age Jan.

Not fishing at all, if Robson was half decent that'd have been another gold.

And whether she'd beat me or not is completely irrelevant.

Fraser-Pryce always looks so happy I just want to hug her.

A truly awful Olympic finalist eh? In the first set she was the best player.

I suspect she may have once shat in Jan's sandwich .

She's Australian, we should never have expected her to do well in this Olympics, just like her compatriots...

Fair enough, if you're not fishing then that's total bollocks!

How the hell could she get to the final if she isn't "half" decent? That in itself I feel was a great achievement, given her current ranking at the age of 18.

100M on now. Bolt to win and beat the WR I reckon.

I'll go for the chemically-enhanced Gaitlin

a 20/1 shot... could he? Probably not.

if bolt could start well and not stumble, he can beat that WR

There was a BBC documentary on the 100m a few weeks back. Someone said they'd analysed all of Bolt's races and that if you took the best phases from each then he would run something like 9.3 secs.

I read back in the day caveman could run quicker over 100 meters then Bolt has. Incredible feet

Which is a bit like saying if a batsman never played a loose shot he'd average 100, or if a golfer never misread a putt he'd always shoot 64. A somewhat pointless hypothetical.

Just saying it as I saw it. Funnily enough a mate of mine was there and he thought the same.  She looked very weak to me, and was the difference between the two sides.

I knew it was her!

Have to say I felt sorry for Ohuruogu though, she put up a hell of a fight, but just left it a bit late. Must be a nightmare, planning for 4 years and you don't quite get it right.

I know, but it's a bit different with Bolt and the 100m. It would only be 10 seconds of getting it right and not fucking around - he practically stopped to pose for photos with 20 metres to go in Beijing. It was also an 'in theory' response and no suggestion he'd actually do it. But he admits to not training as hard as Blake and he likes to enjoy himself as well, which does make you wonder what he could do if he really wanted to and others were actually getting close to him.

Worth watching the documentary if you can, as they really went in to some depth - never realised how technical and complicated the 100m is. Sounds boring but was really interesting.

She was sixth with about 60m to go and then just went for it.  Another 5m and I reckon she'd have had it. 

Ohuruogo is an awesome championship performer.
Only ever run under 50 in major races and hardly ever gets a victory on the circuit.
It shows her ambition and drive that she was disappointed to come second tonight.
And there can be no shame to be beaten by a great athlete like Richards-Ross.

If that's intentional, well done. If not, you're a half-wit.

It shows her ability to time her steroid cycles just right ;)

Surprised at the improvement in our Gymnastics from 0 medals in Beijing to 4 is huge achievement.

Only sour spot in our olympics so far is the swimming, with all the money that got pumped into the sport with only a few medals to show for it isnt good enough. Adlington was disapionting aswell

Didn't Louis Smith get a bronze in the pommelhorse at Beijing?

Has huge money really gone into swimming? Someone told me the other day that there are more olympic size pools in Paris than in the whole of England, which may be shit, but is there even an olympic size pool in Wiltshire?

Yes he did, sorry for that but still a huge improvement.

Not in Wiltshire no but they had one of the bigger investments after athletics rowing sailing and cycling. i think our target was 5-7 medals in the pool.

Looks like Gold in the Showjumping!

Jodphurs away!!

The swimmers' attitude compared to some other sports annoyed me... they were all 'happy to be here', 'here to have fun', and 'pleased to finish in the top 6', with large numbers of them not even troubling there PB's. Compared to some others, most notably in rowing, this didn't sit right with me (and Adrian Moorhouse, it seemed at times). And they got nowhere near their target of 7 golds.

Adlington's interview after the 800m freestyle annoyed me aslo, saying that getting a bronze is a big thing and that everyone saying that it isnt is wrong. If anything she was our poster girl for swimming and then even going as far as admitting that she doesnt train as hard as the other swimmers from usa and china annoyed me also. she got wasted in the 800m by 12 seconds to a 17 year old.

Edit: She was 15 not 17 ffs

A quick wiki search suggests that there are just 8 full olympic size pools in the UK, with another 28 50m pools, some of them not open to the public (through being in private schools or MOD). So about one full length pool per 2 million people.

Chippenham used to have a 50m open air pool; used to spend my summers there.

Anyone just watch the women's boxing? Very, very dubious judging.

Me too! But when I used to go it had just opened!

Donkeys years ago

There's talk of the Olympic pool being 'moved' to Swindon to replace the current Link Centre pool.

Should use the Oasis and incorporate the water chutes

Gone to penalties in the Showjumping

This is why we didn't nail more medals in the pool imo. Tha facilities are shit and kids have to go at the crack of dawn to swim. Massive commitment and cost to parents.

 I got fucked off listening to the twat swimming commentator ejaculating in his pants with our swimmers coming nowhere time after time,and the swimmers just happy to take part. Think Adlington was an exception though as she swam faster in one final than when she won gold. She did her bit,others didn't

Won the showjumping penalties.  Amazing those horses can kick a ball so hard.

I actually couldn't give a fuck about the horse stuff, posh people showing off. Then i heard Skelton talk and he sounded northern so he cant be posh. Well done mate.

That's a bit of a contradiction though buddy tbf. Maybe he was ejaculating at it because like you say rightly yourself our facilities are shit and to even get as far as alot of them do is a great job already.

Most of our swimmers never even saw the semi finals. If you take Adlingtons medals away only 3 Woman got to finals. In the mens event other than Jamieson only 4 got to finals not including the relays which in the mens medley we was very unlucky not to get a bronze.

Might be wrong, but I'm sure I heard somewhere we'd only won 4 gymnastics medals cumulatively in previous Olympics, so to match that in one games is pretty impressive. All the lottery funding of minority sports in the late 90's and early 00's starting to bear fruit with an impressive haul of medals.

Given our facilities like pointed out though it isnt suprising is it?

Certainly was.  I'm not sure what they were watching.  Maybe there was an Aussie and a Frog amongst them?!


I'm not sure the sailing is going particularly to plan either.  Aside fron Ainslie, we lost out on an expected gold in the Star and I don't think we've done anything in any of the races today?

I take your point but the guy was there to commentate on the races themselves. His continual use of the phrase 'so and so is going well' when swimmers were off the pace was annoying.
At least Moorhouse was there to keep things more realistic

Our swimmers 4 years ago never used that excuse but did better than these lot without investment.

Mens' sprint finals coming up at the velodrome

I want Kenny to win because he's part of our team, but I also have Bauge in a cycling accumulator that is on to win. Dilemma.

There's a 'plain sailing' gag in there somewhere, but I'm too tired to make the best of it.

Kenny wins gold.

Brilliant....as for the swimming there are more Olympic size pools in Paris alone than the whole of Britain.
We have done brilliant.....the Lottery has been the major influence on our efforts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/06/morrissey-olympic-games?newsfeed=true

See Morrisey is well chuffed about the whole thing....pity there aint a medal for flower waving.

The omnium elimination race has to be one of the most exciting events there is.

He's become a parody...

Commentator: "The third jumper looks very tidy"

Yes mate, yes she does. Very much so.

I think he's gone past parody now

Female athlete?

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v490/jamiethon/Bloke.jpg[/url]

Sure you are mate.

Yeah, that Belarussian shot putter looks like Tyrion Lannister.

The commentator's just stated that it's a "mystery" how she's improved so much so fast. That's about as much as you can say on air isn't it.

Haha, so she does.

There is no way that she can be a woman.

XP?

Yeah!

Isnt that saxondale without glasses?

Our pole vaulter Holly Bleasdale had a bit of a mare, but she only took the sport up 4 years ago and has jumped 4.87 indoors.

At 20, she'll be back.

How old is she now?

The Canada v USA womens semi final is turning into a bit of a classic. Currently 3-3.

20

Well she should already be back then.

Looking forward to hopefully seeing Anthony Joshua make it through tonight...

I didn't think Holly looked confident for any of her jumps tonight - perhaps big-stage nerves?
She's a great talent and certainly has potential for medals at future championships.
6th in the Olympics at age 20 is not too shabby really.

Looked like thr pressure was getting to her. Although the wind clearly was troubling her, in a mental sense at the very least. Hopefully she'll bounce back - plenty of time to get it right!

Maybe it's just me, but I reckon the athletes getting upset at only getting a silver or bronze need a few well placed slaps.

Seems disrespectful to all the athletes that have worked their bollocks off for the last few years knowing they had absolutely zero chance of getting a medal. And in the case of our handball teams, for example, knowing they were most likely going to get thrashed every time they took the court.

I can understand them being upset but they could be a bit more careful about what they say and how it comes across.

I see your point but only half agree. They are usually interviewed straight after the event so not had time to adjust emotionally.  I don't think considering other athletes have made the same sacrifices and not gained a medal is at the forefront of their mind.

Also they have basically sacrificed every moment of the last 4 years of their lives for that one moment, no going out, not seeing much of partners, friends. Eating the right things at the right time. Every day. 4 years. And then in their eyes they fucked it up because they were capable of better. Sacrifices of sport over loved ones but not the reward they did it for.

I'm sure in the cold light of day they'll see what we see - any medal is a bloody good one.

Totally agree with you there Batch.
They had to go into their events thinking that they not only could but would win, so the immediate reaction is bound to be one of disappointment.  But on reflection they'll generally think that they did a bloody good job and it was all worth it.

Complete carnage in the 110m hurdles, we don't normally have this many fallers do we? It's like the Grand National this*

* rumours of the Chinese athlete being shot are unconfirmed at this stage.

We've just got another gold (19th) and a bronze in the men's triathlon.

fine effort from the brothers in the triathlon, gold and bronze

Shame the younger one had to serve a 15 second penalty for getting on his bike too early, either way well done to them. Are we in with a shout to win another gold in the windsurfing?

I think it's wrong that an athlete is brought in to help other team members. I would want to do the best I can and try and win the race not slow the pack down.

team gb ;-)

Team GB my arse. It's all about winning.

Which we did. Job done.

I was under the impression a gold was a win

Yes we won, but what about the poor bloke in the 'team' who leads for three quarters of the race and then has to drop back to let a 'team member' win?!

i don't think it was quite like that sippo, the two brothers are very strong runners, i don't think the other bloke is as strong as them, if he thought he was capable he'd have gone with them once the running started to try to get a 1,2,3

It's called team tactics. Much like wiggo doing the work to try and get cavendish into the sprint for gold.

Not until he gets home I fear...

Now - which is the most boring to watch.

Yesterday's sailing or the dressage that's on now?

At least sailing is a proper sport though

Perhaps the dressage should be done using Wadworth's dray horses

Dressage really is shit and I get into all the random as fuck sports during the Olympics.

So, what's been your stand-out sport-you-would-not-normally-cross-the-road-to-watch?

I enjoyed the kayaking

BMX starts tomorrow, mountain biking at the weekend.

Canoe Slalom stole the show for me.

Probably the volleyball, or maybe the handball.

Looking forward to the cycling that is on in a bit, potential for a few more medals.

Sprint Cycling probably, although I've really enjoyed the Canoe Slalom and Handball too.

Handball for me, really enjoyed it.

The athletics has been good fun, I would never watch it outside of the olympics though

Well, it may have been boring as feck to watch, but another Gold in the dressage.

Hoorah!

Jolly Hockey Sticks!

and Lashings of Ginger Beer!

Reckon we'll take 3 gold in the velodrome. We've been a class apart from even the second best.

good to get a gold in posh people making horses dance the dutch can still win but need a stupid score to win. :D

I absolutely hate Handball. Pass it left, pass it left, pass it left, pass it left.... Pass it right, pass it right, pass it right, pass it right..... and so on.

I'm surprised we haven't had a 'those-Johnny-foreigners-with-the-funny-name' discussion.

My fav is the German diver Stefan Feck

korean fella called kim yuo suk

Another track cycling gold, Laura Trott wins the omnium, must admit it's a great event to watch.

2 more to follow hopefully.

some cracking names in the olympics, south korean keeper was called bumyoung
there was a woman in the 400 metres hurdles who fell over, her name was aptly Stomblova

Ah, come on you're taking the piss with Stumble Over surely

No, it's true....

http://www.metro.co.uk/olympics/907710-vania-stambolova-lives-up-to-her-name-by-falling-at-the-first-hurdle

Cracker  :Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Chris Hoy wins the keirin...Gold no. 22

Delighted for him. What a sportsman

Ive loved everything in the Velodrome,looking forward to BMX now.

Milica Mandic  (read the C's as K) :D

Likewise.

The word legend gets used quite freely, too much so IMO, but Chris Hoy really is a legend.

I'd be pissed off if I was brought into the 'team' just to help someone else win the race.

By all accounts he wouldn't have got selected on his own merits cos he is weak at running.

Agreeing to pace the other 2 meant he got to compete in the games, better than the alternative of sitting at home watching on TV.

That yank high jumper trying Jedi mind tricks on the bar.

Bronze in the high jump.

Poor British boxer Fred Evans getting a right rollicking in his corner from the trainer.  He's won the first two rounds as well!

South Korea battered Brazil for 20 minutes, if they had any quality they'd have gone 1 0 up.

Class won in the end.

Just a shame that it's not pronounced like that.  ;)

Oops.  Express and mirror seem to have passed off a picture of the third placed dutch dressage team as being our gold medal heroes.

Ok nobody would recognise a dressage sportsman, but the bronze medals round their neck should have been a clue.

Why dont the horses get a medal and podium.

Naaaaay Batch.

Like this you mean?

[url width=620 height=436]http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02301/070812-MATT-web_2301962a.jpg[/url]

Exactly!

Are you going to the palace match later?

No, I'm not going tonight

See the British Olympic Association chief Colin Moynihan has called for the Olympic volunteers to be nominated for the Sports Personality of the Year team award. Personally I'd give them the main Sports Personality of the Year award, outright without a vote.

How they can stay so cheerful, helpful and all round amazing all of the time is beyond me. Non-stop shouts to gee up the crowd, unbelievably helpful, constant high fives, coming up and offering help without being asked and so on. One of them came up to me and said give me your camera and I'll take some pictures of you - he practically grabbed it from me and started taking pictures.

Amazing, absolutely amazing and they really deserve some proper recognition.

Call me old fashioned, but I do find the womens boxing slightly distasteful.

Just doesn't seem right seeing female knocking 7 shades out of each other.

PS Please don't tell the wife I've said this

These BMX riders should have spokey dokeys on.

Reckon they should have cat fighting for the girls rather than boxing. Marks would be based on number of scratches, amount of hair pulled out and number of items of clothing ripped off. Stripping the other girl bare would be an immediate win.

The Chinese Beach Volleyball women currently playing Brazil seem to be held together by gaffer tape.  Hope they make it to the end before any bits fall off.   ;D

On the council estate we used to have beer mats clipped on to the frame with clothes pegs to make a "motorbike sound"

Dodgy judging again in the boxing, GBR's Stalker losing by a point.  The commentators thought he'd won it, as did the crowd and I'm no expert, but he seemed to throw more punches that connected.

Agree the judging was poor tonight in the Stalker fight. I had the 2nd round as a tie and the 3rd a comfortable win for Stalker...not surprised he walked off the way he did!

Agree here also. They have put in an appeal.  So I guess we will find out tomorrow.

Just got into the quaters of the Taekwondo (not sure if that is spelt right) The British girl just beat Serbian she was fighting quite convincingly

You're right, it's quarters.

I can't believe how shit Team GB are. That's over 36 hours without a medal. Wankers.

That Jones is kicking ass in the Taekwondo, I think she might get a gold.

Team GB are ace - gold and bronze in dressage.

Lady boxing lady is just about to win gold!

And stampy tae kwondo bloke went through as well.

Woohoo. Gold for Adams in the boxing. First ever women's boxing medal as well.

Team GB is brill.

We are tearing this Olympics a new arsehole! Come on TeamGB

We're normally shit at sport, what the fucks happend?

The lottery...?

£250+ million of lottery funding happened.

Women's boxing is basically Jeremy Kyle with medals.

 Aside from the shedloads of money thrown at it, a lot of other countries have simultaneously cut back on spending, and chemical enhancement programs have to a certain extent been curtailed.

Doubley good news.

 It's a slightly interesting fact, that GB has won medals in more sports than the US.

currently watching the Norway v S Korea women's handball semi

semi indeed.

Do you have to wait for the Winter Olympics, before getting a full hard on?

Managed to get free tickets for the men's football bronze medal match tomorrow. The lady in question will be recieving a gift in return for her amazingness.

That Tae Kwondo stuff is good to watch until they start stopping for Video replays.

If you take away athletics and swimming we'b be pissing all over the US.

Not sure why they do so well in those events. Maybe they target them as there are more medals? Reckon it's more likely that those sports are popular throughout and integral with their education system. Our universities don't take sport anywhere near as seriously as they do in the US.

Was watching the BBC2 coverage just now and suddenly realised that Sue Barker is morphing into Anne Widdecombe!   :eek:

Very true...remember over the years, and it holds true still to some extent, when the various athletes, were introduced as having done a sports degree at some US university and it being rather sneered at as somehow not a proper degree. Certainly not the sort of thing we'd want here, old chap...bit like fellas like Luke Donald who did golf at some hick establishment.

Really? It's one thing I've always thought would be good, integrating sports with education like they do in the US. Would really like to see football coaching move under the control of schools and colleges if only to keep the big clubs away from school children - always felt uncomfortable with the way they interact with them and the long term effects it can have.

A lot, if not the majority, of the players in the big US sports all have degrees. Our footballers are all thick as shit.

Yeah, I've just added old chap to the original post as it's not my view, more how things have been seen by the higher education establisment.  I'd have loved to have had the chance to do some sporting degree, rather than the Biological Science shit I ended up with.

One of the good parts is that if you're good at sport you'll get a free and high quality education all the way through to a degree. So even if you don't make it as a professional you've something to fall back on.

What happens to all the footballers that don't make the grade over here? Shelf stackers? Call centres? The clubs don't give a fuck, that's for sure.

If you took away rowing and cycling for us...