![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Belatedly, The Games.
Wednesday, September 12th, 2012 12:02 pmWell here we are, the third full day since the Paralympic Games finished and the summer of sport at Stratford ended. It is also the third consecutive day of train disruptions after a comparatively quiet summer. Coincidence? I suspect not.
Last week we went to the Paralympic Games on two separate nights – Monday to watch the wheelchair basketball and Friday to watch track and field events in the main stadium. By and large it was thoroughly enjoyable, though I must confess that the climb up the stands in the basketball arena nearly did for fat old me. I really needed bigger lungs (thank God I gave up smoking over 5 years ago).
Although we had better seats in the main stadium on Friday (row 7), I think I probably enjoyed the basketball more, particularly the men’s game in which Germany, having trailed for most of the game by an impressive number of points, nibbled their way back in the fourth quarter and ended up beating Poland bay an equally wide margin, which did not, I think, reflect the quality gap between the two teams. Though it probably adequately reflected the mentality gap. When things were going badly, the Germans dug in and ground out their plays. The Poles played with greater flair, but panicked as their lead started to crumble and somehow lost the ability to do things that they did with contemptuous ease earlier in the game. Then they started routinely attempting the downright difficult and it all rather got away from them.
I was a little disappointed with the track and field events despite being so close to the track. Everything started and ended over the other side of the stadium, so only on the longer races did anyone go by us, though we did have the women’s long jump a few yards away. That was entertaining, but the noise from the rest of the stadium rather overshadowed it.
The field events were a bit of a washout live. You could see nothing of the shot put and with the discus, apart from the odd one flying by, there was little more to be seen. The nets around the athletes made for quite effective screens.
Still, I’m glad we went. The Olympic Park is spectacular (perhaps I should say was spectacular – it’s being dismantled now and in due course, while the Aquatic Centre will benefit from the loss of the temporary viewing stands and platforms, I think the main stadium will be the worse for the loss of capacity that has been planned. And many of the other buildings were always either entirely temporary, or planned to be disassembles and transported elsewhere.
At night, even that awful tower (made worse by the hideous viewing platform) looked quite splendid, lit from below.
A few pictures are hidden behind the cut, for those who make be interested…
( Read more... )
Last week we went to the Paralympic Games on two separate nights – Monday to watch the wheelchair basketball and Friday to watch track and field events in the main stadium. By and large it was thoroughly enjoyable, though I must confess that the climb up the stands in the basketball arena nearly did for fat old me. I really needed bigger lungs (thank God I gave up smoking over 5 years ago).
Although we had better seats in the main stadium on Friday (row 7), I think I probably enjoyed the basketball more, particularly the men’s game in which Germany, having trailed for most of the game by an impressive number of points, nibbled their way back in the fourth quarter and ended up beating Poland bay an equally wide margin, which did not, I think, reflect the quality gap between the two teams. Though it probably adequately reflected the mentality gap. When things were going badly, the Germans dug in and ground out their plays. The Poles played with greater flair, but panicked as their lead started to crumble and somehow lost the ability to do things that they did with contemptuous ease earlier in the game. Then they started routinely attempting the downright difficult and it all rather got away from them.
I was a little disappointed with the track and field events despite being so close to the track. Everything started and ended over the other side of the stadium, so only on the longer races did anyone go by us, though we did have the women’s long jump a few yards away. That was entertaining, but the noise from the rest of the stadium rather overshadowed it.
The field events were a bit of a washout live. You could see nothing of the shot put and with the discus, apart from the odd one flying by, there was little more to be seen. The nets around the athletes made for quite effective screens.
Still, I’m glad we went. The Olympic Park is spectacular (perhaps I should say was spectacular – it’s being dismantled now and in due course, while the Aquatic Centre will benefit from the loss of the temporary viewing stands and platforms, I think the main stadium will be the worse for the loss of capacity that has been planned. And many of the other buildings were always either entirely temporary, or planned to be disassembles and transported elsewhere.
At night, even that awful tower (made worse by the hideous viewing platform) looked quite splendid, lit from below.
A few pictures are hidden behind the cut, for those who make be interested…
( Read more... )