please empty your brain below
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I believe archers refer to the centre of the target as the 'gold ring', bullseye is a darts term.
NLW | 01.08.12 - 7:24 a.m. | #
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So far, I have seen Canoe Slalom, Swimming and Water Polo. All of them in the cheap seats.
Canoe Slalom - a dramatic venue, good sight lines, commentary, simple rules and a dramatic format (cheer as the paddler beats the current best split time, applaud as they battle upstream, against the raging water, gasp as they miss their slalom gate and face a 50 second penalty) this was the perfect spectator event.
It's obscure and not even on the telly, but 10/10 for Olympic spectating from me. Oh - and the session lasted 5 and a half hours.
Swimming heats - impressive views from the Gods, and a good atmosphere in the hall, but a bit repetitive. And least we got to see Phelps lose - that must be rare! 7/10
Water Polo - the most aggressive Olympic sport I have seen (including the boxing). A titanic struggle with lots of goals. Arcane rules regarding precisely how aggressively your allowed to lamp your opponent, but we go the gyst. Much more engrossing than I'd expected. 8/10
Dan | 01.08.12 - 8:10 a.m. | #
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"I was very fortunate with my seat which was directly in line with the firing archers"
On quick semantic note, you need gunpowder to fire a projectile. Archers shoot their arrows, they don't fire them.
Darren | 01.08.12 - 8:34 a.m. | #
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"...target, which in this case is located directly 75m across the cricket square"
The target is 70m (not 75m) from the shooting line. Bonus fact, the 10 ring has a diameter of 12.2cm.
dg writes: Ah yes, thanks, now updated.
I went to the archery yesterday, and besides the occasional downpour it was great fun. We so very nearly witnessed an upset as Fiji's Robert Elder managed to get within an arrow of knocking out the number 2 seed Kim Bubmin of Korea. That had the crowd just as animated as when a GB archer was competing!
Before we got in, we had a quick little talk advising us how to speed our passage through security, where we were proudly informed that the average queue length for Archery at Lord's was 5 minutes, and the peak length on the first day was just 15 minutes. Impressive!
Darren | 01.08.12 - 8:44 a.m. | #
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Ha ha "... floor lit up like the set of Tron" :-), you know what though? If there's one thing that will make the top-ten-best-things-about-London-2012, for me it would be the excellent and consistent design of uniforms, tickets, banners, lighting, venue dressings, and most of the all the field of play. Clever application of colour, patterns, fonts, signage, contrasts that result in bright, dramatic innovative, "cool" settings. (Sorry for the overuse of adjectives there, but I think you get my sentiment.)
The colours at London 2012 are ace!
Jag | Homepage | 01.08.12 - 8:47 a.m. | #
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@Jag: I'll definitely agree with you that the use of colour has been fantastic, and the signage and uniforms all look great. Where I'll disagree is on the use of font. The London 2012 font is hideous, it's only virtue being how distinctive and instantly recognisable it is.
Darren | 01.08.12 - 8:56 a.m. | #
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I was at the fencing semi final and final. Despite not knowing the first thing about fencing, it was thrilling. The underdog Egyptian came so close to Gold (and Silver is still a mighty achievement!).
Unlike your experience, we had spotlights trained on the spectators during the action, which was utterly infuritaing. The lights made it hard to concentrate on the athletes - spotlights blasting your eyes.
Quite agree about "pleasure gardens" - miserable little camp, walked right through that.
IslandDweller | 01.08.12 - 9:51 a.m. | #
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Its looks like the Pleasure Gardens could turn out to be a major scandal. what a total mess!
Ian Brooker | 01.08.12 - 12:54 p.m. | #
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How on earth do/did you get so many tickets? My Wife has been trying for days to get just any ticket (primarily for shooting, but just anything in the end) and cannot get any sense out of the ticketing website. No wonder there are so many empty seats.
The "help" lines give you a pre-recorded list of FAQs and answers, and then cut you off. There is no way of speaking to a real person.
She has now given up.
Temp | 01.08.12 - 1:02 p.m. | #
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Went to fencing this morning (mens epee round of 32, 16 and quarter finals)with my son and then to work on the Olympic Park, also via Pontoon Dock (the footbridge over the road is a temporary ODA structure). "London Pleasure Gardens" correctly described - looks so run down and scruffy. Thought that the Excel was a lot nicer(and for food/drink a whole lot cheaper) than the Wembley Arena which I was at on Monday evening for badminton. Fencing was really good, with the top seeds knocked out before the 1/4 finals. Son going up to Wembley for Gabon against South Korea at 5pm.
xmb53 | 01.08.12 - 1:52 p.m. | #
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Temp - most of the tickets were sold last year, via a lottery. DG probably won a fair few here via a combination of choosing less popular events (as you'll see from his posts) and bidding for his maximum allowance (of 20 events). He probably won around a third of these.
In addition, more seats have been released in the intervening period (if he goes sailing or volleyball it will be one of these), so if (as it seems) he keeps us his daily visits for the next two weeks, he probably picked up a fair few of these as well.
Sadly, at this late stage most events have sold out, but the last time I looked they still had cheap tickets for the Women's football. Worth a try as GB have a decent chance of reaching the final.
Dan | 01.08.12 - 3:31 p.m. | #
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I went to the Archery this morning at Lords. As a special bonus the Lords Museum is open to Olympic visitors.
KissenMe | 01.08.12 - 5:08 p.m. | #
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Temp - the best way to buy Olympic tickets was to buy them 15 months ago :)
A few scraps now go on the London 2012 website at midnight, but not many, and not cheap.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 01.08.12 - 7:57 p.m. | #
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DG - as Darren pointed out, it's "shooting" in archery, not "firing".
That apart, thanks for the great write-up of your day. Next best thing to being there, or watching it on the telly...
Pete Moore | 01.08.12 - 8:53 p.m. | #
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Blimey, have you got tickets for every day of the Games?!!
I just moved back to London in June, so couldn't take part in the other rounds of ticket sales. I am desperately trying for something in the park, and have seen tickets pop up, but by the time I click "submit", they've gone! : (
CornishCockney | 01.08.12 - 9:46 p.m. | #
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Turkey v Angola link is borked.
One event in each of the first four days of the games is quite something. How much longer can you keep this up?
Also... you haven't explained/reported the handball (day 2) yet. That's probably the sport I have the least clue about, and that's saying something!
swirlythingy | Homepage | 01.08.12 - 9:58 p.m. | #
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Any lingering puzzlements you have about fencing, DG, I’ll be happy to ask my son who has been fencing for about 20 years at lowly small-club level.
Great Aunt Annie | 02.08.12 - 1:12 a.m. | #
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Anything worth seeing at the Excel and surrounding area, other than the sports that is? In other words, whereas the Olympic park has Park Live, the Beatbox etc does Excel have anything?
Phil | 06.08.12 - 8:58 a.m. | #
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ExCel has the cablecar, and that's about it. It used to have the London Pleasure Gardens, but they went bust last week. Entirely underwhelming, incompetently managed, and only accessible if you forked the right way on exiting the venue.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 06.08.12 - 9:06 a.m. | #
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The Thames Barrier and park are just the other side of Pontoon Dock: turn right at the exit from Excel and cross the (temporary?) bridge, rather than left to Prince Regent. Pity the Pleasure Garden has gone bust - got a nice icecream there on the walk through.
Andrew | 09.08.12 - 12:32 p.m. | #
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