Ok so i' a bit pissed but i don't care... This is probably the end of the blog, i'm back and hammered so here goes!!!
We finished up with a flurry of medals, Tom's 100m silver being a great run in spite of 4 false starts and could have been gold had there been one more metre... a brilliant run in the circumstances nonetheless and if we ever find out the true identity of the Greek winner then we'll no doubt establish that Tom was the true winner of the race,
Johnboy ran a blinder in the 10k to finish 2nd... his talent is now being backed up with tactics and the results are startling! Lots more to come from him in the future and there's no reason why he can' plug on with more from here.
The womens 4 x 100m was met. inevitably, with some controversy but a brilliant last leg from Harriet secured a bronze for the team. Severely impeded by a felled Guernsey runner, Harriet popped round the outside of her to sneak a medal on the line which was more than deserved for all of the team!
The mens 4 x 100m relay was hit with futher controversy... Tom pulled up with a nerve problem which left the team needing a strapping, quick youngster to fll in... none of these were available though so i had to do it! The team were immense and Mikey and Pete set me up with a perfect consolidation leg which Will brought home for the boys - i've never been so happy in my life!!! Mikeys run was all the moer remarkable given his recent traumas in a Greek hairdressers which has left him looking like a shaved sloth on ecstacy, ony worse.
My triple should have been a medal but i messed up and injured myslelf in needless fashion, which wasn't ideal and ultimately led to me finishing 6th... not great but my leg is screwed bigtime and i don't think i'll be out again this season.
A great games overall and i can't wait to see the rest of the team tomorrow morning... its about 5am and i'm first back - Will and Harriet were up to no good at the closing ceremony so i'm eagerly aniticipating his return. Reports that John H and Andrew D were stuck in a lift together for 2 hours are also, as yet, unconfirmed...
Sorry its not a great post but it brings you up to speed... last post this weekend.
Saturday, 7 July 2007
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
From the sublime to the ridiculous...
Yesterday will probably go down as the craziest night of my athletics career - if i ever encounter anything like it again i think i'll have to quit the sport in disgust. Some exceptional performances on the track and in the field were once again, however, overshadowed by biased, partizan and comical officiating.
The morning session was another great one for our athletes. Both the mens and womens 4 x 100m teams finished 2nd in their heats to progress through to Fridays final, and both have every chance of medalling. The changeovers were, on the whole, very well executed and there's quiet confidence within both camps about our chances.
Peter 'Love Machine' Richardson ran an extremely composed 400m heat to qualify for tomorrow nights final. He later consolidated this performance by not only anchoring the mens 4 x 400m team through to win their heat but was then seen canoodling with a certain member of the Womens Basketball team - well done mate! Dave Munro was drawn in the toughest of the three heats and failed to progress to the final, but he's come out here and done way more than he expected to so it was only a matter of time before the legs got a bit too heavy.
Rach Kelly dipped under 16 seconds for the first time in the 100m hurdles heats to comfortably qualify for her final too. She eventualy finished 6th in the final lowering her time again to around 15.7 seconds - her time would have been good enough to win a medal at the last two games but the standards have been raised massively at these games - more on this later.
Finally, Rachael Franklin and Nicola Cooil both ran tactically astute races and were never troubled in reaching tomorrow nights final. Nicola was particularly impressive given that she had to wait so long for her first taste of the action, and i'd give both girls an outside chance of medalling if they can recreate this sort of form in the final.
Then came the evening session. Oh dear...
I find it quite sad really how some excellent performances are being overshadowed by incompetent and biased officiating. Take Gemma Astion's incredible 500m race for example. The girl is only 15 and ran an incredibly quick time, never looking out of place in a vastly experienced field. However, the race was overshadowed by two moments of sheer farce. Firstly, during the race they stopped the front two a lap early, only to realise what a howler they'd made. They only went up to one athlete and told them to keep running though. Which one? The Rhodes athlete of course!!! Graham Davies had been asked to help out with the officiating but was asked to leave before the race descended into chaos which makes actions such as these even more infuriating. Secondly, after the race had finished it was discovered that no time had been recorded for Gemma - this is schoolboy stuff that you wouldn't expect at a school sports day let alone an international sporting event!!!
The womens shot was also dogged by bias, disqualification and heavy-handed officials. Louise Kneen and Charlotte Christian both threw well - Lousie was slightly disappointed that she couldn't replicate her efforts at the Northern Champs but still threw over 11metres, whilst it was good for Charlotte to get the nerves out of her system and she can nopw look forward to her best event, the Hammer, on Friday. Again however, the officials got away with murder. They were measuring no-throws from Rhodes athletes, turning a blind eye to a physio who came on to treat an athlete in the competition area and had the temerity to escort Lou away from the competition for talking to another competitor. Its not good enough for Its A Knockout and we certainly shouldn't be subjected to it.
I won't talk too much about my Long Jump other than to say that it was an incredible feeling to break a 20 year old national record in a great competition - to finish 8th in such a good competiton is far from disgraceful and hopefully my injuries will clear up by Friday's Triple, where i hope to win a medal.... Still searching for that elusive 7 metres though!!! The offiating left a bitter taste in my mouth however, as the winner (a Rhodes athlete, of course) was seen by many in the crowd - not just Manxies - to have big jumps measured that were in fact fouls. At one stage the official actually winked at the athlete whilst covering up the spike marks in the plasticine with her thumb. Ok i wouldn't have won and i don't want to take anything away from a great competition on the whole, but the guy from Gotland who jumped a big LEGAL pb only to lose by 4cm will be justifiably gutted this morning.
I was also affected by two medal ceremonies, meaning i had to delay my jump by 5 minutes each time having been prepared mentally to jump each time; something that is extremely dificult to replicate. But given that i've got the core stability of a jellyfish and the speed of Johnny Vegas riding a shopmobility vehicle up Crellin's Hill, then all being well i don't see any reason why i can't be in the top 20 jumpers in the country come Commonwealth year in 2010.
I don't know too much about the other performances of the night, only that Johnboy was disappointed that his speed endurance let him down in the 5km, whilst Kev had another promising run in the same race (a pb i think). All thoughts in Andy's group will shortly be turning to December's crucial Santa Dash race, with John out to reclaim the course record set by Kevin last year - those crazy guys eh, always living on the edge...
I just thought i'd finish by making reference to the seemingly low medal tally we've accumulated so far. One gold to date really doesn't tell the whole story - the whole team have performed brilliantly thus far, and the lack of medals is mainly due to a massive jump in the standard of the competition. If you compare our performances to date to those of Shetland then we are arguably much better and would have a better tally of medals. You only have to look at performances such as Gemma and Rachael in the 1500m (silver and bronze performances two years ago), Gemma's 5k (gold 2 years ago) and even the long jump (7.01m won bronze in Shetland, 7.33m won bronze here) to see the vast improvements in the standard of the competition.
There is no such thing as an 'easy medal' any more which can only be good for the future of Manx athletics... we need an event such as this to bring our young athletes through and hopefully see a few of them break onto the national scene. We're playing a bit of catch up on similar islands such as Guernsey but we're making massive inroads into their advantage - a big thumbs up must, therefore, go to all the coaches and volunteers across the Island... keep up the good work guys!!
We've got a rest day today so no blog later - i'll post again on Thursday night, when we could have up to 18 athletes competing... it could be a looooooong blog! (not as long as this though - sorry!)
The morning session was another great one for our athletes. Both the mens and womens 4 x 100m teams finished 2nd in their heats to progress through to Fridays final, and both have every chance of medalling. The changeovers were, on the whole, very well executed and there's quiet confidence within both camps about our chances.
Peter 'Love Machine' Richardson ran an extremely composed 400m heat to qualify for tomorrow nights final. He later consolidated this performance by not only anchoring the mens 4 x 400m team through to win their heat but was then seen canoodling with a certain member of the Womens Basketball team - well done mate! Dave Munro was drawn in the toughest of the three heats and failed to progress to the final, but he's come out here and done way more than he expected to so it was only a matter of time before the legs got a bit too heavy.
Rach Kelly dipped under 16 seconds for the first time in the 100m hurdles heats to comfortably qualify for her final too. She eventualy finished 6th in the final lowering her time again to around 15.7 seconds - her time would have been good enough to win a medal at the last two games but the standards have been raised massively at these games - more on this later.
Finally, Rachael Franklin and Nicola Cooil both ran tactically astute races and were never troubled in reaching tomorrow nights final. Nicola was particularly impressive given that she had to wait so long for her first taste of the action, and i'd give both girls an outside chance of medalling if they can recreate this sort of form in the final.
Then came the evening session. Oh dear...
I find it quite sad really how some excellent performances are being overshadowed by incompetent and biased officiating. Take Gemma Astion's incredible 500m race for example. The girl is only 15 and ran an incredibly quick time, never looking out of place in a vastly experienced field. However, the race was overshadowed by two moments of sheer farce. Firstly, during the race they stopped the front two a lap early, only to realise what a howler they'd made. They only went up to one athlete and told them to keep running though. Which one? The Rhodes athlete of course!!! Graham Davies had been asked to help out with the officiating but was asked to leave before the race descended into chaos which makes actions such as these even more infuriating. Secondly, after the race had finished it was discovered that no time had been recorded for Gemma - this is schoolboy stuff that you wouldn't expect at a school sports day let alone an international sporting event!!!
The womens shot was also dogged by bias, disqualification and heavy-handed officials. Louise Kneen and Charlotte Christian both threw well - Lousie was slightly disappointed that she couldn't replicate her efforts at the Northern Champs but still threw over 11metres, whilst it was good for Charlotte to get the nerves out of her system and she can nopw look forward to her best event, the Hammer, on Friday. Again however, the officials got away with murder. They were measuring no-throws from Rhodes athletes, turning a blind eye to a physio who came on to treat an athlete in the competition area and had the temerity to escort Lou away from the competition for talking to another competitor. Its not good enough for Its A Knockout and we certainly shouldn't be subjected to it.
I won't talk too much about my Long Jump other than to say that it was an incredible feeling to break a 20 year old national record in a great competition - to finish 8th in such a good competiton is far from disgraceful and hopefully my injuries will clear up by Friday's Triple, where i hope to win a medal.... Still searching for that elusive 7 metres though!!! The offiating left a bitter taste in my mouth however, as the winner (a Rhodes athlete, of course) was seen by many in the crowd - not just Manxies - to have big jumps measured that were in fact fouls. At one stage the official actually winked at the athlete whilst covering up the spike marks in the plasticine with her thumb. Ok i wouldn't have won and i don't want to take anything away from a great competition on the whole, but the guy from Gotland who jumped a big LEGAL pb only to lose by 4cm will be justifiably gutted this morning.
I was also affected by two medal ceremonies, meaning i had to delay my jump by 5 minutes each time having been prepared mentally to jump each time; something that is extremely dificult to replicate. But given that i've got the core stability of a jellyfish and the speed of Johnny Vegas riding a shopmobility vehicle up Crellin's Hill, then all being well i don't see any reason why i can't be in the top 20 jumpers in the country come Commonwealth year in 2010.
I don't know too much about the other performances of the night, only that Johnboy was disappointed that his speed endurance let him down in the 5km, whilst Kev had another promising run in the same race (a pb i think). All thoughts in Andy's group will shortly be turning to December's crucial Santa Dash race, with John out to reclaim the course record set by Kevin last year - those crazy guys eh, always living on the edge...
I just thought i'd finish by making reference to the seemingly low medal tally we've accumulated so far. One gold to date really doesn't tell the whole story - the whole team have performed brilliantly thus far, and the lack of medals is mainly due to a massive jump in the standard of the competition. If you compare our performances to date to those of Shetland then we are arguably much better and would have a better tally of medals. You only have to look at performances such as Gemma and Rachael in the 1500m (silver and bronze performances two years ago), Gemma's 5k (gold 2 years ago) and even the long jump (7.01m won bronze in Shetland, 7.33m won bronze here) to see the vast improvements in the standard of the competition.
There is no such thing as an 'easy medal' any more which can only be good for the future of Manx athletics... we need an event such as this to bring our young athletes through and hopefully see a few of them break onto the national scene. We're playing a bit of catch up on similar islands such as Guernsey but we're making massive inroads into their advantage - a big thumbs up must, therefore, go to all the coaches and volunteers across the Island... keep up the good work guys!!
We've got a rest day today so no blog later - i'll post again on Thursday night, when we could have up to 18 athletes competing... it could be a looooooong blog! (not as long as this though - sorry!)
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
Mondays shenanigans, and a bit of a moan...
Apologies for the lateness of the post guys - yesterday turned into a pretty long day and i needed to rest up before the Long Jump tonight. I'm just back from the morning session so thought i'd give you an update on our progress and also take the opportunity to have a bit of a moan...
The morning session was again productive, with Tom and Will both progressing nicely in the 200m semis. Tom ran an easy race to finish third in an attempt to both keep a bit in reserve and also try and get an outside draw in the final. Will, looking as stylish as ever, finished an excellent 4th to progress, his 'whoop' of delight demonstrating his elation at making a final at his first games.
Mikey 'Mouth' Haslett and Dave Munro both produced classy runs to progress to the final of the 400m hurdles. Mikey eased down in winning his heat, whilst Dave produced a storming finish to progress. Dave can be so relaxed he's almost comatosed however, as 2 minutes before he set off he still hadn't put his spikes on! Di wasn't a happy bunny!
Our girls also ran in the 400m heats in the morning, with Sarah 'Granny' Dowling producing a fine pb in windy conditions to progress to the final. Harriet's famed turbo-booster failed to kick start unfortunately, but the way she ran her first 200m will no doubt have put her at the forefront of many peoples' thoughts come Thursday's heats.
Onto the evening session - no medals gained unfortunately, but i think of about 8 athletes competing only one had previous games experience and we were by no means outclasssed in any event. In no partucular order then...
Helen Sheen, fresh from her Judo silver, threw to a high standard in an extremely close javelin competition. Her finishing position of 7th by no means tells the full story - another 2 metres or so would have actually seen her with a bronze!!
Andrew Duncan was involved in quite a boxing contest in his 800m final, where he finished in a creditable 6th position in a high class field. The strength in depth we have in the mens 800m is astonishing at the moment when you consider that Duncan, Ben Brand, Tom Richmond, James Eccles, Andrew Newton, Keiron Murray, Conor Delanbanque et al could all be under 2 minutes come 2009 - i would love to be a fly on the wall in that selection meeting!!
Tom and Will completed their 200m odyssey with 5th and 7th places respectively in the final. For some strange reason they ran into a headwind despite the fact that all athletes have enjoyed tail winds in their events so far. Both will come on immeasurbly for the experience - Will is rumoured to be signed up by Stella McCartney for fashion tips however so whether he's on the plane to Aland is still up in the air...
A fast finishing Sarah Dowling finished 6th in her 400m final, and with this being her first full year at the distance there's surely more to come - unless age gets the better of hyer and the blanket and walking stick come out of the cupboard!!
Apologies if i've missed anyone but i'm hungry and need food - just enough time for a rant though. In no particular order, these things pissed me off yesterday...
1) Triple Jump. Apparently all the boards are welded into position meaning that anyone wishing to jump of the 11m board (as i do) will be forced to run over the 13m board on their penultimate stride. Having nearly injured myself in the past in this situation i've had to have a serious think about my participation on Friday... i've got a game plan but to even be in this position is a farce.
2) Officials. One thing i like about the games is the rigidity of proceedings - you know where you stand and well turned out and tuned in officials give the occasion so much more importance. As you can probably guess however, that isn't the case here. Watching the Women's triple jump i was treated to the sight of the board official sat cross-legged wearing jeans, shouting distances to a colleague 15metres away. 2 of the officials looked no older than 9, and generally i'm not filled with a lot of optimism that any problems that will arise are going to be dealt with. Our management team are performing fantastically to voice all concerns, but we really shouldn't be in this position.
3) Buses. The service over here is nothing short of diabolical. Last night was the worst of all, with a wait of 30 minutes at our hotel producing 4 buses, all of which featured crazy Greek drivers who clearly couldn't be arsed picking anyone up and driving straight past, nearly knocking a swimming official over at one stage. It does nothing for the confidence of athletes who need to sign in for a certain time - think i'm going to bite the bullet and get a taxi down tonight!!
There we go, rant over. I'm sure i've missed loads out but you get the picture! I'm off to prepare for what will be a fiercely contested Long Jump competition tonight - updates to come later.
The morning session was again productive, with Tom and Will both progressing nicely in the 200m semis. Tom ran an easy race to finish third in an attempt to both keep a bit in reserve and also try and get an outside draw in the final. Will, looking as stylish as ever, finished an excellent 4th to progress, his 'whoop' of delight demonstrating his elation at making a final at his first games.
Mikey 'Mouth' Haslett and Dave Munro both produced classy runs to progress to the final of the 400m hurdles. Mikey eased down in winning his heat, whilst Dave produced a storming finish to progress. Dave can be so relaxed he's almost comatosed however, as 2 minutes before he set off he still hadn't put his spikes on! Di wasn't a happy bunny!
Our girls also ran in the 400m heats in the morning, with Sarah 'Granny' Dowling producing a fine pb in windy conditions to progress to the final. Harriet's famed turbo-booster failed to kick start unfortunately, but the way she ran her first 200m will no doubt have put her at the forefront of many peoples' thoughts come Thursday's heats.
Onto the evening session - no medals gained unfortunately, but i think of about 8 athletes competing only one had previous games experience and we were by no means outclasssed in any event. In no partucular order then...
Helen Sheen, fresh from her Judo silver, threw to a high standard in an extremely close javelin competition. Her finishing position of 7th by no means tells the full story - another 2 metres or so would have actually seen her with a bronze!!
Andrew Duncan was involved in quite a boxing contest in his 800m final, where he finished in a creditable 6th position in a high class field. The strength in depth we have in the mens 800m is astonishing at the moment when you consider that Duncan, Ben Brand, Tom Richmond, James Eccles, Andrew Newton, Keiron Murray, Conor Delanbanque et al could all be under 2 minutes come 2009 - i would love to be a fly on the wall in that selection meeting!!
Tom and Will completed their 200m odyssey with 5th and 7th places respectively in the final. For some strange reason they ran into a headwind despite the fact that all athletes have enjoyed tail winds in their events so far. Both will come on immeasurbly for the experience - Will is rumoured to be signed up by Stella McCartney for fashion tips however so whether he's on the plane to Aland is still up in the air...
A fast finishing Sarah Dowling finished 6th in her 400m final, and with this being her first full year at the distance there's surely more to come - unless age gets the better of hyer and the blanket and walking stick come out of the cupboard!!
Apologies if i've missed anyone but i'm hungry and need food - just enough time for a rant though. In no particular order, these things pissed me off yesterday...
1) Triple Jump. Apparently all the boards are welded into position meaning that anyone wishing to jump of the 11m board (as i do) will be forced to run over the 13m board on their penultimate stride. Having nearly injured myself in the past in this situation i've had to have a serious think about my participation on Friday... i've got a game plan but to even be in this position is a farce.
2) Officials. One thing i like about the games is the rigidity of proceedings - you know where you stand and well turned out and tuned in officials give the occasion so much more importance. As you can probably guess however, that isn't the case here. Watching the Women's triple jump i was treated to the sight of the board official sat cross-legged wearing jeans, shouting distances to a colleague 15metres away. 2 of the officials looked no older than 9, and generally i'm not filled with a lot of optimism that any problems that will arise are going to be dealt with. Our management team are performing fantastically to voice all concerns, but we really shouldn't be in this position.
3) Buses. The service over here is nothing short of diabolical. Last night was the worst of all, with a wait of 30 minutes at our hotel producing 4 buses, all of which featured crazy Greek drivers who clearly couldn't be arsed picking anyone up and driving straight past, nearly knocking a swimming official over at one stage. It does nothing for the confidence of athletes who need to sign in for a certain time - think i'm going to bite the bullet and get a taxi down tonight!!
There we go, rant over. I'm sure i've missed loads out but you get the picture! I'm off to prepare for what will be a fiercely contested Long Jump competition tonight - updates to come later.
Sunday, 1 July 2007
Oh what a night...
Amazing! Audacious! Unbelievable! And they were just the comments about Will Latta's headband!!!
I've just got back from a great evening session down at the track where we've secured our first athletics medal of the games, a gold for John 'Boy' Halligan. Hopefully its the first of many, and if the performances of today are anything to go by this certainly won't be the last medal for the team this week...
First up today was the half marathon. In typically scorching conditions the mens event was won in an impressive 73 minutes. First home for us was Andy Fox, who turned back the clock yet again to defy his 47 years and came home 8th. Next in was Kevin Loundes, who unfortunately hit the wall (so to speak) around the 15km mark, but still finished in 13th in a time that was far from disgraceful in the testing conditions. Kevin's finish resembled our very own Chris Quine stumbling out of Colours at 3 in the morning (except Kev looked more graceful) but a cracking test of willpower to see it through having looked to be gone a few km out. Ed Gumbley finished in 18th place, and i learned a valuable lesson... NEVER put your arm around a long distance runner just after they've finished - not the nicest feeling in the world!!
Gail and Sam also appeared to 'enjoy' their first Games outing, both athletes finishing within 2 minutes of each other. Gail is obvioulsy after an acting career after the games, as crossing the line she gave her best Oddjob impression, whipping off her cap and throwing in (unwittingly i admit) at an official!!
Onto the evening session... Shaun's performance in the High Jump was certainly respectable in the testing conditions. He wasn't helped by some Walter Mitty-esque officiating, and although he will be disappointed he should take credit from another good performance in a big event. Tom Riley and Will Latta were in cruise mode in the 200m heats, Tom looking effortless and Will looking, erm, like a 60s throwback! Seriously though, the lads will be looking forward to the semis tomorrow morning with high hopes and both look good for a place in the final.
Gemma and Rachael were simply brilliant in the 1500m. To come out in their first games and post times that, incidentally, would have seen them take the silver and bronze medals in Shetland shows just how well they ran. Neither athlete was unfazed and both stuck to their pre-race plans. Both girls will be fighting for podium places in Aland i'm sure, and you have to remember that this is neither girls' strongest event!!!
Andy Duncan, fresh from his recent heartbreak, showed John just what he's missing out on by running a brave 800m heat and qualified 3rd. Its never easy to front run, especially with the wind so strong on the back straight, and he also broke 2 minutes for only the second time in his life... there's a lot more to come from Andrew this week i feel.
I'll save the best for last of course though. John ran a tactically PERFECT (note the capitals, it was that good) race, not forcing the pace until about 500m out when he blew the opposition away - Gebreselassie would have been proud of that kick! I'm made up for John as not only has he broken his games duck but also beat his previous nemesis, Lee Garland, in the process. Having promised myself that i'd be conservative at these games and save my voice for the relays, i went and lost it didn't i. In fact, according to Caroline Brand i was so purple when shouting that it looked like i'd lose consciousness as well!!!
I'm off for a bite to eat and to try and find my voice, hopefully more of the same from me tomorrow!!!
I've just got back from a great evening session down at the track where we've secured our first athletics medal of the games, a gold for John 'Boy' Halligan. Hopefully its the first of many, and if the performances of today are anything to go by this certainly won't be the last medal for the team this week...
First up today was the half marathon. In typically scorching conditions the mens event was won in an impressive 73 minutes. First home for us was Andy Fox, who turned back the clock yet again to defy his 47 years and came home 8th. Next in was Kevin Loundes, who unfortunately hit the wall (so to speak) around the 15km mark, but still finished in 13th in a time that was far from disgraceful in the testing conditions. Kevin's finish resembled our very own Chris Quine stumbling out of Colours at 3 in the morning (except Kev looked more graceful) but a cracking test of willpower to see it through having looked to be gone a few km out. Ed Gumbley finished in 18th place, and i learned a valuable lesson... NEVER put your arm around a long distance runner just after they've finished - not the nicest feeling in the world!!
Gail and Sam also appeared to 'enjoy' their first Games outing, both athletes finishing within 2 minutes of each other. Gail is obvioulsy after an acting career after the games, as crossing the line she gave her best Oddjob impression, whipping off her cap and throwing in (unwittingly i admit) at an official!!
Onto the evening session... Shaun's performance in the High Jump was certainly respectable in the testing conditions. He wasn't helped by some Walter Mitty-esque officiating, and although he will be disappointed he should take credit from another good performance in a big event. Tom Riley and Will Latta were in cruise mode in the 200m heats, Tom looking effortless and Will looking, erm, like a 60s throwback! Seriously though, the lads will be looking forward to the semis tomorrow morning with high hopes and both look good for a place in the final.
Gemma and Rachael were simply brilliant in the 1500m. To come out in their first games and post times that, incidentally, would have seen them take the silver and bronze medals in Shetland shows just how well they ran. Neither athlete was unfazed and both stuck to their pre-race plans. Both girls will be fighting for podium places in Aland i'm sure, and you have to remember that this is neither girls' strongest event!!!
Andy Duncan, fresh from his recent heartbreak, showed John just what he's missing out on by running a brave 800m heat and qualified 3rd. Its never easy to front run, especially with the wind so strong on the back straight, and he also broke 2 minutes for only the second time in his life... there's a lot more to come from Andrew this week i feel.
I'll save the best for last of course though. John ran a tactically PERFECT (note the capitals, it was that good) race, not forcing the pace until about 500m out when he blew the opposition away - Gebreselassie would have been proud of that kick! I'm made up for John as not only has he broken his games duck but also beat his previous nemesis, Lee Garland, in the process. Having promised myself that i'd be conservative at these games and save my voice for the relays, i went and lost it didn't i. In fact, according to Caroline Brand i was so purple when shouting that it looked like i'd lose consciousness as well!!!
I'm off for a bite to eat and to try and find my voice, hopefully more of the same from me tomorrow!!!
Greek tragedy (in more ways than one...)
Well, i've finally calmed down enough (i think) to update you on the events of yesterday and the farce of last night. It was without doubt the worst opening ceremony in history, which is a shame really because the setting in the ancient stadium was magnificent...
More on that later though. Saturday morning saw the relay squads head down to the main stadium for some last minute relay preparations. The final teams for Tuesday's heats have not been announced yet but i think management have got a pretty good idea who these teams are going to be. One notable absentee from these teams however, and indeed the rest of the games competition, is Ben Brand. I've mentionned on the last few blogs that he's been struggling with his calf/achilles injury and, sadly, a visit to the local medical centre has resulted in doctors' orders of 4 weeks full rest. To his ultimate credit, Ben is still being as bouncy as ever (well, personality wise anyway), and i'm sure a disappointment such as this will only drive him on to big things in Aland in 2009.
No other significant injuries to report, but the strong wind in the stadium is causing a few athletes problems. Rachael Kelly, for example, will be forced to make a decision as to which way round her blocks will be only moments before the gun goes as the wind is causing havoc with early race stride patterns. Also, i've never really though of Rach as someone who would be a 'dirty' athlete, but now that she's
1) been called sweaty by a local bus driver; and
2) told a group of us she felt 'dirty' in her training gear
i'm beginning to see her in a whole new light!!!
On to the opening shambles. Now this being my fifth games i've become pretty accustomed as to what to expect at these things... you hang around for 20 minutes, get marched into a field to warm applause, some local school kids do the Macarena or something equally as imaginative, speeches, home, bed. Not this time. I think we must have been kept waiting for around an hour this time as our ultra organised Greek friends ran around like headless chickens trying to get things sorted.
Being bored after about 30 seconds, we (along with the Basketball team) tried to lighten the mood with a limited but loud selection of Manx songs. You'll be disappointed to learn however that the chart topping classic about the Laxey Wheel was only brought out once. The bookies favourite for 'Supporter of the Week' is now undoubtedly young Mikey Haslett though, who sang himself hoarse, embarrassed himself at times yes, but really got into the swing of things in general - how his voice hasn't gone this morning i'll never know!
Eventually we were marched into the old stadium to lound cheering and applause. This is one of the best moments of the Games for me, as it means that the faffing around has ended and the business end is about to begin. The stadium announcer was about 3 days too fast but no matter, i'm sure the Rhodes public were oblivious to the fact that we were not in fact Sark. We were seated at the far side of the staduim and once everyone was in the main event started.
What. A. Bloody. Shambles (sorry kids) We were subjected to 50 minutes of Greek drama, allegedly telling the tale of how the world began but after about 5 minutes all we wanted was for the world to end there and then. I was sat next to Rach (thankfully clean by this stage) and we set about providing our own commentary to proceedings as, from what we could make out, the female narrator kept referring to Eeyore and Appolini (possibly a god, possibly an Italian footballer - who knows. Rach provided perhaps my favourite quote of the games so far though when she said.
"For gods sake, this is why all the venues aren't finished isn't it - they've wasted all their time and money on this crap!"
I won't go into much more detail as i've just realised how long this is - you really did have to see it to believe it though. Once the event had finished we still had the speeches and water to come which was too much for most islands. Rather sadly in my opinion, the speeches were delivered to a half empty stadium with the other half streaming out of the gates, half in disgust, half in agony (the stone seats weren't exactly comfortable, to put it mildly). We stayed for Brian Partington's speech (who sounded pretty cheesed of himself) then bolted, returning home around half 11. Not exactly the ideal preparation for our athletes competing today (Sunday) i'm sure you'll all agree.
I'll update you on some fine half-marathon action tonight, along with an update on how our atheltes got on this evening. As a final note though i'd just like to let you know that Andrew Duncan appears to be losing his battle to win John's heart, but i'll keep you posted...
More on that later though. Saturday morning saw the relay squads head down to the main stadium for some last minute relay preparations. The final teams for Tuesday's heats have not been announced yet but i think management have got a pretty good idea who these teams are going to be. One notable absentee from these teams however, and indeed the rest of the games competition, is Ben Brand. I've mentionned on the last few blogs that he's been struggling with his calf/achilles injury and, sadly, a visit to the local medical centre has resulted in doctors' orders of 4 weeks full rest. To his ultimate credit, Ben is still being as bouncy as ever (well, personality wise anyway), and i'm sure a disappointment such as this will only drive him on to big things in Aland in 2009.
No other significant injuries to report, but the strong wind in the stadium is causing a few athletes problems. Rachael Kelly, for example, will be forced to make a decision as to which way round her blocks will be only moments before the gun goes as the wind is causing havoc with early race stride patterns. Also, i've never really though of Rach as someone who would be a 'dirty' athlete, but now that she's
1) been called sweaty by a local bus driver; and
2) told a group of us she felt 'dirty' in her training gear
i'm beginning to see her in a whole new light!!!
On to the opening shambles. Now this being my fifth games i've become pretty accustomed as to what to expect at these things... you hang around for 20 minutes, get marched into a field to warm applause, some local school kids do the Macarena or something equally as imaginative, speeches, home, bed. Not this time. I think we must have been kept waiting for around an hour this time as our ultra organised Greek friends ran around like headless chickens trying to get things sorted.
Being bored after about 30 seconds, we (along with the Basketball team) tried to lighten the mood with a limited but loud selection of Manx songs. You'll be disappointed to learn however that the chart topping classic about the Laxey Wheel was only brought out once. The bookies favourite for 'Supporter of the Week' is now undoubtedly young Mikey Haslett though, who sang himself hoarse, embarrassed himself at times yes, but really got into the swing of things in general - how his voice hasn't gone this morning i'll never know!
Eventually we were marched into the old stadium to lound cheering and applause. This is one of the best moments of the Games for me, as it means that the faffing around has ended and the business end is about to begin. The stadium announcer was about 3 days too fast but no matter, i'm sure the Rhodes public were oblivious to the fact that we were not in fact Sark. We were seated at the far side of the staduim and once everyone was in the main event started.
What. A. Bloody. Shambles (sorry kids) We were subjected to 50 minutes of Greek drama, allegedly telling the tale of how the world began but after about 5 minutes all we wanted was for the world to end there and then. I was sat next to Rach (thankfully clean by this stage) and we set about providing our own commentary to proceedings as, from what we could make out, the female narrator kept referring to Eeyore and Appolini (possibly a god, possibly an Italian footballer - who knows. Rach provided perhaps my favourite quote of the games so far though when she said.
"For gods sake, this is why all the venues aren't finished isn't it - they've wasted all their time and money on this crap!"
I won't go into much more detail as i've just realised how long this is - you really did have to see it to believe it though. Once the event had finished we still had the speeches and water to come which was too much for most islands. Rather sadly in my opinion, the speeches were delivered to a half empty stadium with the other half streaming out of the gates, half in disgust, half in agony (the stone seats weren't exactly comfortable, to put it mildly). We stayed for Brian Partington's speech (who sounded pretty cheesed of himself) then bolted, returning home around half 11. Not exactly the ideal preparation for our athletes competing today (Sunday) i'm sure you'll all agree.
I'll update you on some fine half-marathon action tonight, along with an update on how our atheltes got on this evening. As a final note though i'd just like to let you know that Andrew Duncan appears to be losing his battle to win John's heart, but i'll keep you posted...
Saturday, 30 June 2007
Night...
Just back from the opening ceremony. I'm too traumatised byb the experience to write about it now, it was that bad. More from me in the morning.
Friday, 29 June 2007
More miracle workers and strange occurrences...
Day 3 of our stint is now nearly over, and to be honest i just want to get out there and compete as soon as possible!! The period of acclimatisation is doing us all the world of good, but there are times when it feels we're kicking our heels and waiting for something to happen. I've been out in the sun for about 2 hours today, an hour and a half of which was down at the track training, and given that most people are expecting me to come back black just by looking at the sun i've got a bit of work to do when we're eventually let out to play!!
The last comment is made in jest, of course, but it is a sign of how seriously the management team are treating these games as well of the athletes. I don't think i've been involved in any team which was poorly run, but i have to say that this is easily the best run team i've been part of. This includes perhaps the biggest miracle worker on the island in our masseur, Andy Watson. Andy has been working tirelessly pretty much since we got off the plane (the bloody treatment table went missing at the airport), and is averaging around 15-16 treatments PER DAY for our athletes. I've just come down to the computers from a treatment on my quads and calves as i felt a bit of a twinge, and have come out feeling even more battered and bruised but its all good in the long run Andy did say i was the most difficult treatment of the day and the only person to have squealed like a girl, but we'll keep that one quiet shall we... He's doing a tremendous job not only with the massages but also the rehydration strategies which are keeping us all safe from the perils of heatstroke etc over here.
Training was good today as we finally got to use a pit and throwing cages!! Not at the actual stadium, to think that would be ready days before the games is just absurd - rather at an older stadium in Rhodes town. The board was a little precarious (welded in and no plasticine) and its the only pit i've ever seen with grass growing in it as a permanent fixture!! But i had a good workout with the jumping sages of Andy, Di and Chris looking on. Between us we made a bit of progress i think which is good... just looking forward to Tuesday now!!
As for the strange events of the past 24 hours, these include a bizarre 'love triangle' between John, Sarah and Andrew Duncan - John and Andrew have been flirting like you would not believe and i think Sarah is beginning to get suspicious. Also rumoured to have happened was a late night skinny dip involving a few of the younger lads - there was a Riley involved yes, but not me!!! Ben is still hobbling about - he wasn't able to get physio today due to the need to rest up but he's not outwardly showing and signs of being worried about missing events.
Anyways i'm being harrassed for the comp so i'll send you some more rubbish tomorrow...
The last comment is made in jest, of course, but it is a sign of how seriously the management team are treating these games as well of the athletes. I don't think i've been involved in any team which was poorly run, but i have to say that this is easily the best run team i've been part of. This includes perhaps the biggest miracle worker on the island in our masseur, Andy Watson. Andy has been working tirelessly pretty much since we got off the plane (the bloody treatment table went missing at the airport), and is averaging around 15-16 treatments PER DAY for our athletes. I've just come down to the computers from a treatment on my quads and calves as i felt a bit of a twinge, and have come out feeling even more battered and bruised but its all good in the long run Andy did say i was the most difficult treatment of the day and the only person to have squealed like a girl, but we'll keep that one quiet shall we... He's doing a tremendous job not only with the massages but also the rehydration strategies which are keeping us all safe from the perils of heatstroke etc over here.
Training was good today as we finally got to use a pit and throwing cages!! Not at the actual stadium, to think that would be ready days before the games is just absurd - rather at an older stadium in Rhodes town. The board was a little precarious (welded in and no plasticine) and its the only pit i've ever seen with grass growing in it as a permanent fixture!! But i had a good workout with the jumping sages of Andy, Di and Chris looking on. Between us we made a bit of progress i think which is good... just looking forward to Tuesday now!!
As for the strange events of the past 24 hours, these include a bizarre 'love triangle' between John, Sarah and Andrew Duncan - John and Andrew have been flirting like you would not believe and i think Sarah is beginning to get suspicious. Also rumoured to have happened was a late night skinny dip involving a few of the younger lads - there was a Riley involved yes, but not me!!! Ben is still hobbling about - he wasn't able to get physio today due to the need to rest up but he's not outwardly showing and signs of being worried about missing events.
Anyways i'm being harrassed for the comp so i'll send you some more rubbish tomorrow...
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