Paralympic Games at the Olympic Stadium - Friday 7th September
After having such a good time at the Olympics tennis and football events I tried (and failed) to get tickets to some of the athletics sessions.
I later decided to try for tickets for the Paralympics and managed to get 3 tickets for the morning session on the 7th September. I then had to beg for the day off work as 2 of my team already had the time booked off....but I managed to convince my boss that she should let me go :)
So, the dog went off to the kennels and we got up at 5am Friday morning :( Rob's mum arrived and we walked to the station to catch our 6.12 train to London.
The train journey went smoothly and we arrived at Waterloo on time. Headed to the Jubilee line which was understandably busy, got on the 2nd train and got seats once we stopped at Canary Wharf and the train emptied out a bit.
We got to Stratford and we followed the huge pink signs to the Olympic Park. Security was quick and easy....still don't understand why the football was different as it seemed much better here and at Wimbledon!
We headed over to the Olympic Stadium to figure out where our seats were. We were in Block 246, Row 58 (seats 133 - 135). As I had only paid £10 we were expecting to be quite high up.....but we were actually much lower than I thought....I guess we must have got some of the better 'cheap' seats :)
We took a few photos on the way to our seats:
There were a number of events planned for the morning session - some 100M, 200M and 800M heats (various classifications) as well as a discus final, 2 javelin finals and a long jump final for visually impaired athletes.
A number of events got started at 10 and it was quite interesting how much was going on at one time.
There were a number of medal ceremonies for events which had been completed the previous day. I forget which events but I took photographs of the scoreboard so I can always look back at them :)
There were some amazing competitors during this session.
The stadium announcer told us about one of the athletes in the javelin - he was from Haiti and somehow got classified as a standing athlete - unfortunately this was incorrect (he could not stand) but he got himself fitted for prosthetic limbs and competed as a standing athlete despite having only been walking for 2 days.......amazing!
This isn't the athlete mentioned but here is a photo from the competition:
One of the 100M heats:
The stadium was full of spectators:
These guys won silver and bronze in the javelin competition and they were over the moon.....great celebrations :)
The most amazing part of the day for me was the long jump competition.
The athletes were visually impaired and the crowd was asked to be silent so that the athletes guides could tell them when to jump.
I was absolutely stunned by this event......have you ever tried running with your eyes closed? The trust that they place in their guides to direct them is amazing!
It also required a lot of co-operation from the crowd to stay quiet at the right times so that the guides could communicate with the athletes :)
I was also very excited to see the little cars which took the javelins back to the athletes:
We were also able to see Josie Pearson take discus gold for Team GB - breaking the world record on several occasions!
We also saw Dan Greaves pick up his silver medal from the discus competition.
Final event of the session - 800M heats:
So, after all the events and victory ceremonies were completed we left the stadium and wandered out in to the Olympic Park.
We did a little bit of souvenir shopping and took a few more photos:
We then headed out of the park and went to have a look around the shopping centre nearby.
We grabbed a bite to eat, then headed back to Waterloo where we got the 16.20 train home.
We were back in Gillingham just after 18.20 and then watched some more Paralympic action on the TV :)
As a side photo - we were going through Bradford on Avon one day when I went to work with Rob and so I got my photo taken by the Gold post box for Ed Mckeever :)
As usual all of the photos can be found here: Photos
I later decided to try for tickets for the Paralympics and managed to get 3 tickets for the morning session on the 7th September. I then had to beg for the day off work as 2 of my team already had the time booked off....but I managed to convince my boss that she should let me go :)
So, the dog went off to the kennels and we got up at 5am Friday morning :( Rob's mum arrived and we walked to the station to catch our 6.12 train to London.
The train journey went smoothly and we arrived at Waterloo on time. Headed to the Jubilee line which was understandably busy, got on the 2nd train and got seats once we stopped at Canary Wharf and the train emptied out a bit.
We got to Stratford and we followed the huge pink signs to the Olympic Park. Security was quick and easy....still don't understand why the football was different as it seemed much better here and at Wimbledon!
We headed over to the Olympic Stadium to figure out where our seats were. We were in Block 246, Row 58 (seats 133 - 135). As I had only paid £10 we were expecting to be quite high up.....but we were actually much lower than I thought....I guess we must have got some of the better 'cheap' seats :)
We took a few photos on the way to our seats:
 |
| Me and Rob's mum - yes we do have matching fleeces! |
A number of events got started at 10 and it was quite interesting how much was going on at one time.
There were a number of medal ceremonies for events which had been completed the previous day. I forget which events but I took photographs of the scoreboard so I can always look back at them :)
There were some amazing competitors during this session.
The stadium announcer told us about one of the athletes in the javelin - he was from Haiti and somehow got classified as a standing athlete - unfortunately this was incorrect (he could not stand) but he got himself fitted for prosthetic limbs and competed as a standing athlete despite having only been walking for 2 days.......amazing!
This isn't the athlete mentioned but here is a photo from the competition:
One of the 100M heats:
The stadium was full of spectators:
These guys won silver and bronze in the javelin competition and they were over the moon.....great celebrations :)
The most amazing part of the day for me was the long jump competition.
The athletes were visually impaired and the crowd was asked to be silent so that the athletes guides could tell them when to jump.
 |
| The guide walks backwards whilst clapping for the athlete |
 |
| The guide gets into position and the athlete starts to run |
 |
| The guide jumps out of the way as the athlete reaches the board |
I was absolutely stunned by this event......have you ever tried running with your eyes closed? The trust that they place in their guides to direct them is amazing!
It also required a lot of co-operation from the crowd to stay quiet at the right times so that the guides could communicate with the athletes :)
I was also very excited to see the little cars which took the javelins back to the athletes:
We were also able to see Josie Pearson take discus gold for Team GB - breaking the world record on several occasions!
We also saw Dan Greaves pick up his silver medal from the discus competition.
Final event of the session - 800M heats:
So, after all the events and victory ceremonies were completed we left the stadium and wandered out in to the Olympic Park.
We did a little bit of souvenir shopping and took a few more photos:
We then headed out of the park and went to have a look around the shopping centre nearby.
We grabbed a bite to eat, then headed back to Waterloo where we got the 16.20 train home.
We were back in Gillingham just after 18.20 and then watched some more Paralympic action on the TV :)
As a side photo - we were going through Bradford on Avon one day when I went to work with Rob and so I got my photo taken by the Gold post box for Ed Mckeever :)
As usual all of the photos can be found here: Photos
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