It was an early start for me, 4:10am to be precise, however I was really excited to be going to my first ever Olympics event. A short taxi ride to the train station soon followed before boarding my 5:15am train. After changing at Basingstoke, I arrived at London Waterloo at 6:50am and met my friend Mike who I met from Twitter earlier this year at a Southampton football match. As expected, London was busy but not as busy as you would think. After the 15-20 minute tube journey to Stratford, the excitement was beginning to kick in with hundreds of people exiting the station to make their way towards the Olympic Park on which was a rainy day in the capital.
The airport security was a funny experience where I had to drink the whole bottle of water that I had with me because of the possibility of that people will conceal 'liquid bombs'. I was saying to Mike, "Where are the "chug, chug" chants when you need them?" and the army troops joined in with the laughter which was good to see. Then we made the walk to the Olympic Park and seeing the signs towards it made it feel very surreal to be one of the many spectators to be flooding in to watch one of the many sports on offer.
As I entered the Olympic Park, my first reaction was, "Wow!" The Olympic Stadium, costing almost half a billion pounds, was an amazing sight to see despite my initial reaction to when LOCOG released details of the stadium to which I thought wasn't good to look at. Next to the Olympic Stadium was the Orbit which is the tallest art structure in the UK offering amazing views of the Olympic Park. Unfortunately, Mike and I didn't get a chance to go inside the red-coloured spiral designed structure however it certainly looks astonishing from the outside.
After taking in the scenary, Mike and I made our way towards the Aquatics Centre where we were forced to wait for around 15 minutes before going through to have our tickets checked. The volunteers were on form to try and get everybody excited for the swimming heats by asking the visitors to take part in Mexican waves however it was expected that not everybody took part. After our tickets were scanned, we were welcomed by a big set of Olympic rings on a similar hill to the one that was used in the Opening Ceremony. We made our way up the steps into the building, with the excitement continuing to build and Mike and I opened the doors to the block that we would be sitting in and we saw the swimming and diving pools where we had big grins on our faces. It was an amazing feeling to be inside the impressive Aquatics Centre and when we finally took our seats, the views were simply outstanding.
The action took place 90 minutes later with the Men's 100m Freestyle event kicking off procedures of the morning session. Team GB's Adam Brown took part in Heat 6 where he would come in last place (7th) but despite this, there were some more chances for Team GB's swimmers in the other events. The next event was the Women's 200m Butterfly where there were four heats involved and two Brits would take part. First up was Ellen Gandy who took part in the 100m Butterfly final a few days before however she was the last to finish in 8th place. Back to the 200m, Gandy had a fairly decent swim with the crowd roaring across the Aquatics Centre and she eventually finished in 5th place in Heat 3. Jemma Lowe was the next Brit to take part in Heat 4 where she gave a superb performance finishing in second place behind USA's Kathleen Hersey with a time of 2:07.64. The result meant that Lowe qualified for the semi-finals which would take place later on that day.
The third event to take place in the pool was the Men's 200m Breaststroke where there five heats overall with semi-final places up for grabs. Most of the crowd had to wait until Heat 3 for Team GB participation where Michael Jamieson took his place in Lane 2. Jamieson swam very well to take second place with a time of 2:08.98 however he was two tenths of a second off Hungary's Daniel Grurta. Andrew Willis was in Heat 5 for Team GB where the crowd cheered him on to victory in 2:09.33 where he would join Jamieson in the semi-finals.
The final event of the morning was the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay where we would see two very entertaining heats. In Heat 1, France came out on top finishing with a time of 7:09.18 with Germany, South Africa and Hungary also qualifying for the final of the event. Team GB took their place in Heat 2 where it was a closely fought battle between the eight countries. The atmosphere inside the Aquatics Centre was getting louder as Team GB kept themselves in the top three in their heat and eventually finished third behind the USA and Australia. The morning session came to a close around 11:30am where the screen showed various celebrities and past Olympians including Jonathan Edwards and Gail Emms wishing us a safe journey home. Mike and I reflected on the events we had just seen and both agreed that it was terrific to watch as we entered our way out of the Aquatics Centre.
After a spot of lunch which was REALLY overpriced, we had a walk around the Olympic Park taking in more of the scenery and the opportunity to take a few more pictures. We went to the hill where fans can sit to watch other events on the big screen where on the occasion, it was showjumping. A quick trip into the official shop where I purchased a Spain flag because I'm half Spanish and then Mike and I made the decision to head out of the Olympic Park to go home. It was a lot busier in the afternoon than this morning however the tube from Stratford to Waterloo was once again showing no trouble with the amount of passengers that the Underground will take to and from the Olympic Games. Mike and I spoke to a couple of Canadian women on the tube where Mr Bean was the popular topic and one of the women told us that her daughter loves the character which was great to hear.
After saying my farewells to Mike, I went off to find my train which I did with ease and finally got home around 3:30pm where I had the chance to reflect on a day that I will never, ever forget at London 2012. I would like to take the opportunity to thank The National Lottery as without their competition in giving me the opportunity of winning the tickets, I probably would have never got the opportunity to go so a big thank you to them!
The airport security was a funny experience where I had to drink the whole bottle of water that I had with me because of the possibility of that people will conceal 'liquid bombs'. I was saying to Mike, "Where are the "chug, chug" chants when you need them?" and the army troops joined in with the laughter which was good to see. Then we made the walk to the Olympic Park and seeing the signs towards it made it feel very surreal to be one of the many spectators to be flooding in to watch one of the many sports on offer.
As I entered the Olympic Park, my first reaction was, "Wow!" The Olympic Stadium, costing almost half a billion pounds, was an amazing sight to see despite my initial reaction to when LOCOG released details of the stadium to which I thought wasn't good to look at. Next to the Olympic Stadium was the Orbit which is the tallest art structure in the UK offering amazing views of the Olympic Park. Unfortunately, Mike and I didn't get a chance to go inside the red-coloured spiral designed structure however it certainly looks astonishing from the outside.
The action took place 90 minutes later with the Men's 100m Freestyle event kicking off procedures of the morning session. Team GB's Adam Brown took part in Heat 6 where he would come in last place (7th) but despite this, there were some more chances for Team GB's swimmers in the other events. The next event was the Women's 200m Butterfly where there were four heats involved and two Brits would take part. First up was Ellen Gandy who took part in the 100m Butterfly final a few days before however she was the last to finish in 8th place. Back to the 200m, Gandy had a fairly decent swim with the crowd roaring across the Aquatics Centre and she eventually finished in 5th place in Heat 3. Jemma Lowe was the next Brit to take part in Heat 4 where she gave a superb performance finishing in second place behind USA's Kathleen Hersey with a time of 2:07.64. The result meant that Lowe qualified for the semi-finals which would take place later on that day.
The final event of the morning was the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay where we would see two very entertaining heats. In Heat 1, France came out on top finishing with a time of 7:09.18 with Germany, South Africa and Hungary also qualifying for the final of the event. Team GB took their place in Heat 2 where it was a closely fought battle between the eight countries. The atmosphere inside the Aquatics Centre was getting louder as Team GB kept themselves in the top three in their heat and eventually finished third behind the USA and Australia. The morning session came to a close around 11:30am where the screen showed various celebrities and past Olympians including Jonathan Edwards and Gail Emms wishing us a safe journey home. Mike and I reflected on the events we had just seen and both agreed that it was terrific to watch as we entered our way out of the Aquatics Centre.
After a spot of lunch which was REALLY overpriced, we had a walk around the Olympic Park taking in more of the scenery and the opportunity to take a few more pictures. We went to the hill where fans can sit to watch other events on the big screen where on the occasion, it was showjumping. A quick trip into the official shop where I purchased a Spain flag because I'm half Spanish and then Mike and I made the decision to head out of the Olympic Park to go home. It was a lot busier in the afternoon than this morning however the tube from Stratford to Waterloo was once again showing no trouble with the amount of passengers that the Underground will take to and from the Olympic Games. Mike and I spoke to a couple of Canadian women on the tube where Mr Bean was the popular topic and one of the women told us that her daughter loves the character which was great to hear.
After saying my farewells to Mike, I went off to find my train which I did with ease and finally got home around 3:30pm where I had the chance to reflect on a day that I will never, ever forget at London 2012. I would like to take the opportunity to thank The National Lottery as without their competition in giving me the opportunity of winning the tickets, I probably would have never got the opportunity to go so a big thank you to them!
