On Friday 31st of August, i was privileged enough to go and watch the Paralympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in London.This was only Day 2 of the London2012 Games, and already i witnessed many new World Records, Paralympic Records and Personal Bests for the Athletes.
Here is a diary for my day at the Games:
5:30am- Alarm clock- SNOOZE.
5:35am - Get up out of bed and rush to get ready, to catch the Bus at 6:10am.
I met my parents at St Pancras Station and got the Javelin Train to Stratford where the Olympic Stadium is.
We had tickets to see the morning session of Athletics on Day 2 of the Paralympic Games. The Session itself started at 10am, however, we wished to see the Olympic Park before it got too busy.
8:00am We were greeted by friendly and helpful staff as we entered the park. We then had to proceed through "Airport" style security.
The Sun was Bright as we walked towards the Orbit tower, where most importantly for that time in the morning, the Tea is located.
I order a Chamomile Tea and what I think is a White Chocolate Muffin. As we have turned up nice and early there is somewhere to sit and drink our tea underneath the Orbit with the London Skyline in the distance.
Turns out the tea is something weird and herbal and the muffin is, in fact, banoffee.
Next we visited the Gift Shop. The Floor is painted like the track with numbered lanes and there is wall to wall merchandise.
My Uncle bought me a London2012 Paralympics Athletics souvenir t-shirt. All the shirts are well made and designed. They were sold out of Extra Small, So i guess i will grow into mine eventually!
After purchasing the souvenirs we headed to the stadium!
The Stadium can seat 80,000! It really is that huge.As we had turned up before the morning session, we took full advantage of taking tourist photos of the stadium.
The lights that panned around the seats during the opening ceremonies were made by little paddles that are attached to the seats by a coiled cable. Each paddle is fitted with about 9 L.E.Ds.
The other half of the stadium was bathed is sun light whilst the side we were on was in the shade. This was probably more beneficial for a perfect view of the athletics, but was freezing! We were seated fairly close to the Paralympic Torch, which didn't provide as much heat as i would have liked! I was regretting not buying a souvenir blanket!
The Paralympic Flame has 166 petals, each representing a country competing at the Games.
The Events for that day were:
- Men's Club Throw: F31, F32 and F51 Final
- Women's 5000m - T54 Round 1
- Women's Long Jump - F37/38
- Women's Discus Throw: F35 & F36 Final
- Men's Shot Put- F42 and F44 Final
- Men's 400m - T13 Round 1
- Men's 1500m - T11 Round 1
- Men's 200m T37 Round 1
- Women's 200m T46 Round 1
- Women's 100m T34 Round 1
The roar and excitement of the crowd in the events where Team GB were taking part was breath taking.
Aled Davies won GB's first Medal in Athletics with a Bronze in the F42-44 Shot Put.
Hannah Cockroft was so far ahead of any of the other competitors in the heats of the Women's 100m T34. She then went on to receive gold in the evening session:
With up to 6 sports to see, you could pick which ever you wanted to watch, or dip in and out.
I was a little worried at one point, as the Brazilian Discus Thrower had crossed over the track to talk to her coach, and wasn't paying attention to the 5000m Wheelchair racers that were hurtling toward her. She managed to get out of the way in time!
The T11 Runners ran with Guides who have to be evenly matched with the athletes. It was really a great to witness a once in a lifetime experience. I was really surprised at the friendly and relaxed atmosphere. The Stadium was completely full with people cheering on all the athletes.
A great day out at the races :)
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| Womens Long Jump |
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| Men's T13 400m Race |
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