We saw some great hurdling yesterday and there's more on the cards today. The athletics continues this morning and evening, with medals up for grabs towards the end. The Beach Volleyball also comes to a conclusion this evening with the gold medal match deciding the podium order. Also today: Boxing, Canoeing, Women's 10m diving, Individual Showjumping, Sailing, Men's Teams Table Tennis, Taekwondo, and some Women's wrestling. However, I am mostly intrigued by the BMX racing which begins today.
London 2012, Day 12
Published by Christine Blachford on
Looks like there's another playable Doodle today (how many have we missed?) - Basketball: https://www.google.com/doodles/basketball-2012
first couple were rubbish. i've been favouring bing during the olympics, because the pictures are soooo much better - http://www.bing.com/
the pole vault competition is a farce right now....
Time to revive the sidepodcast traditional Friday games night for non-competitive people like Lou and I. Best I can do is 27 points in the basketball and 14.8 for the hurdles. If I had a keyboard with the space bar closer to the arrows I reckon I could take a second and a half off my hurdles time.
Obviously if someone can beat my scores I will not get all competitive and try and beat their's. Oh no.
so all the competitors have talked their way into the final. 17 people i think have qualified for the final, that was a little strange.
Sailing: 49er medal race just started - our boys going for bronze.
It's slipping out of our grasp, with ~2 legs to go.
Was always going to be a tough race: 5th overall.
1-2 for the anzacs.
Is anyone watching the sailing feed and hearing an incessant & infernal beeping noise in the background?
Our 470 girls have secured themselves a medal before going into the medal race. They are tied 1st, and so it could well be the big G.
Nobody's 'vault' but their own... ^^;;;
In other words, you've 'Binged' and decided, right? ;)
Both the NASCAR and IndyCar races on TV in the US got clobbered in the TV ratings on Sunday. What I would like to know is what the NBC networks were showing at the time the races were occuring.
Story: http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/08/sprint-cup-rain-and-olympics-a-bad-combinaton-for-nascar-from-pocono/
The RUS - LTU Men's Basketball Q-final looks really interesting. Switching between that, Freestyle Wrestling and Individual Show Jumping here.
yeah not a bad match, russia the better side but lithuania are playing pretty well.
also watching abit of the bmx time trials.
Bet the riders have to go mad nucking futs fast to get a good starting position. ;)
I wonder, you know of any X Games BMX racers in the field? Just curious.
ive go no idea about them, just remember watching the bmx in the last olympics, its pretty exciting when tha races start
Just like snowboard-X or Skiier-X
Would DOwnhill Mountain Cycling be a future event possibility? I imagine it could be done like they do in BMX.
Oooo the men are running on the trickier looking course - I was hoping for that.
Obviously the organizers want to test their manliness. :D Sadists... ;)
RUS by 6 with 3:15 to go
Just punish their thighs that much more.
I remember the berm(sp?) turns being asphalt instead of dirt at Beijing. Are those turns the same this year?
Is it wrong that he's faster than a lot of the girls, despite doing the long course. (The commentators haven't realised the difference)
They look it / or similar - looks like a nice construction of the course.
Yup - comms confirm asphalt (clay's not ideal for wet climates).
Until this year, if memory serves. Team competitions in equestrian were the only co-ed Olympic sport. This year, we had the Team competition in Luge at the Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck and Mixed Doubles Tennis.
Look for the Team Luge competition at Sochi in less than 2 years. I hope they do the same for Bobsled. :D
geez there will be some chaos on the twisty part of the mens track when the races start. its almost like a chicanne with one line and when there are 6 bikes at full speed fighting for position its going to be madness.
RUS up 5 with 61 seconds to go.
How many women are going to crash and get stuck in the bomb-hole?
32.3 to go, same difference
I wonder if any of the F1 drivers have been taking in the goings on at the Olympics...
JB was following the triathlon (no surprise there), i know Lewis was celebrating his Grenada connection when they did well somewhere.
RUS wins it! 83 - 74 over LTU
PdiR has been 'bigging up' Chris Hoy and other cyclists on Twitter, but I've not heard whether any of them have actually been there.
AUS up 5 - 2 on SRB w/6 minutes to go in the first half
THis in the Men's Water Polo Quaterfianl
SRB back to withing 2 now
yes, 7-4 now
two posters in a row, nice
serbia are gold medal favourites so im abit surprised the aussies are up.
Oooooooo. What if that one-timer went in?
Halftime.
And I have to leave for work in about a half-hour
Tight game 1 in the Men's VOlleyball Quaterfinals at Earls COurt between the USA and ITA. A bad call by the officials puts the USA in position to take the first set, but ITA ties it at 24.
Ow, hockey stick to the head
Not the goalie getting hit I presume?
Oww - looks rather painful
nah, one of the kiwis who is not head to toe padded!
Gooooal!!!!!!
romain was there
Part of his honeymoon do you think?
Helmet and/or pads for the field players should be optional, if you ask me. Sadly, it's time for me to make my way to work. I'll see you all later. :)
Noooo they scored too
The girl who got whacked is back on pitch with a turban of bandages. Hardcore.
2-2, what now?
Come onnnnn new Zealand, you just need one golden goal!
Eek, shoot out
An well, no shame in taking the world #1 team to a shoot out, and still a chance for bronze :D
Webbo definitely went to some bits and pieces.
RG was there earlier.
Ahh, 7pm Gary time. Athletics coming up.
What do we have first? Men hurdling. Yay for jumping!
Have we mentioned BMX for inclusion on the jumping list?
Saw some shots of BMXing earlier and I remember it from last time (when it was brand new, maybe?) Definitely approve of Bmxing.
any reason athletics aren't run indoors? they're always having issues with wind.
Apparently, "it's an outdoor sport".
There are indoor athletics but they count them separately, and not in the Olympics, I guess.
odd. it's like they're deliberatly making life more difficult.
All nine lanes in use in this one.
I suppose it's a similar to lots of other sports, that have problems with the weather. You can't put them all inside, or for that matter build a roof over the top of an existing venue ;)
These people seem to be knocking over so many hurdles. I don't remember seeing so many of them go flying before!
We appear to have two Brits in this one. England and Dobriskey.
Gooood evening people of the sidepodland
Hey hey!
Her name is England :)
#easilyamused
I love the start of this one, just bend down a bit, sorted.
Dobriskey was right at the back and now seems to be taking the long way round the outside. Hard work!
Hello. They suddenly got a lot faster.
Good effort - 400m sprint finish
There's something about that bell, it's like flicking a switch :)
it wakes you up!
I'd like to see some of the Velodrome people race on this track, longer with no banking..
Amazing how they all bunched up again at the end.
Ted is at the women's volleyball. I bet he even knows everything about that too.
What happens in 'the pits' at one of those matches - I suppose he'll tell ue.
Maybe when they ring the bell the athletes have a little inner ear headphone that goes 'BRING ON THE WALL!'
How can you choose the qualifier between two with the same time?
Close one for Laura Weightman but looks like she's just scraped through to the final!
Crammy looked pleased.
She's only 21. Nothing like the Olympics to make you field old, eh?
I think the 200m might be a better watch than the 100m.
Agreed, is the final later?
Slightly longer, at least!
Blake is faaaast
Look at him go!
Well, apart from the end!
They suggest Blake might be faster than Bolt over the 200m.
There's saving energy, and then there's letting two people cross the line the same time as you.
He was actively showing himself down hard, not just coasting - silly boy.
Here comes Bolty
so casual. so fast.
Bolt seemed to handle that one better.
That was just a jog over the post office before it closes!
It's also impressive how fast he is for his height
Long strides though.
He just does big giant steps the whole race :)
Big long jump!
Oooh false start in this semi final!
Looks like he fell over!
BANG BANG !! The gun false-started.
What's going on?
DSQ
Yeah but it looked like he was walking back on for a second
It did look like he was being allowed back for a second - probably confused by the fact that he'd already left.
Awww, I feel bad for Christian seeing as he's from Newport. I know where he lives.
That wasn't meant to be as creepy as it sounds..
:)
Ohhhh Boris. :)
How do you do links so that you get text instead of the url?
Text here#a>
Just get rid of the #'s
well that was terrible faiil
< a href="LINK"> text here< /a>
This time I used mr c's preview correctly ;)
Get rid of the spaces in the tag before the first a and before the /a
Hehehehehe!
The german national anthem! Feels ages since I heard it.
like this?
winner!
Brill - cheers - I can look like a pro now ;)
Yay!
you'll be making a geocities website next :)
If they hit the orange bit of the jump board it should spring up and take them off. That'll teach them to be accurate
orange and purple bit, even. somehow i missed the purple :)
They have to sneak that pink and purple in wherever they can.
This is definitely the most purple Olympics I have ever seen
Cor, that distance over hurdles looks exhausting.
close 200m race!
wait, i totally missed the hurdles. am i really that tired?
That sand must get everywhere.
It's in a note on my desktop for easy access ;)
Colin Jackson is older than he looks. He was at the Seoul Olympics?
Women's 200m could be good. And has 3x double-barrelled names.
And by the time you've said them all, someone's won it.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is just being greedy!
One of these, I think it might have been Felix, looked like she was floating in the heat or semi-final. Really smooth style.
Curse these double barrel named people!
My money's in Felix
Beautifully done!
Felix does it!
Richards-Ross has fake sleeves, Felix has fake socks.
"Felix gets Gold" - the makers of Whiskas won't like that marketing.
Hairy long legs?
I'm hoping it was 'very' :)
Ooh, they mentioned relay running. I'd forgotten about the relays. On Friday, I think.
Friday and Saturday if I remember rightly
My dad sent me this link, ten strange Olympic sports that are no longer: http://olympics.time.com/2012/07/16/really-strange-sports-that-are-longer-in-the-olympics/#distance-plunging
Horse long jump. I ask you.
Actually there may only be nine.
Bring back the tug of war!!
Inverdale seems to have had Newey in his ear - talking about the aero of hairstyles.
Distance diving? Just floating away and whoever floats furthest wins. Brilliant.
Not moving for 60 seconds is an Olympic sport I can get on board with :)
Can't believe men aren't allowed to do synco swimming! #sexist
to be fair i cant even sync my arms and legs when i swim let alone with someone else
Damn - forgot to say I thought he'd win
When hurdles fall over it's like when suspects go down in a game of Guess Who
Clark came fourth! That's amazing.
You can say now, we'll just pretend.
MERRETT
Wohoo :)
Heheh.
Pretty sure the guy next to Clark knocked down every single hurdle!
He reminds me of Jake
His hair is a bit spiky.
Our hockey ladies have just lost in the semis to ARG.
I really am that tired, i thought you were angry but you meant argentine
I am tired, so was avoiding thinking about the spelling
Just a few more days, boys, push, push, push!
How does understeer help?
Ohh look, there is mountain biking the Olympics
Tomorrow's schedule: http://www.london2012.com/schedule-and-results/day=9-august/all-day.html
Are the hockey pitches wet?
Yup - they're water-based astroturf
I saw them the first time and thought, blimey it's been raining a lot. But then it was like that every time, and I know it hasn't been raining THAT much.
At half time (etc) you can see 3/4 huge sprinklers soaking them all.
It looks like carpet!
It essentially is - plasticy/rubbery carpet
Really?
I have seen the same splash effect on astroturf football pitches because they put millions of little blsck rubber balls to give it bounce. I assumed they were using white balls
Clare Balding (I think?) tweeted something earlier about them soaking down the pitch.
My uni used to have them both side-by-side, and the hockey is on these because you get a better run of the ball across the surface.
The little balls make the ball bounce a lot and the pitches are very weird to walk on. Your foot moves all over the place when you put it down. It's a bit like you are walking on a boat
Sporting nonsense of the day is the new FIFA rankings which make the Castrol Rankings look accurate. FIFA have England ranked as the 3rd best team in the world. Even the person on the radio reaing out the story was laughing
This time has come to ...
I want to know why this guy isn't at the olympics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7e-wUEJFeE
woah, apparently he is!
You can't leave us hanging
Presumably he is one of the people who carries the baskets with the athletes' clothes
Oh my god, just seen the clip of the pole vault that snapped!! IT HAPPENS/
I was assuming someone was watching the same montage after Gary.
... push the button!
Amazingly he did the high jump for russia last night and lost his tshirt
also he won Gold... mind = blown
Same guy!?!
yes!
bit of an improvement
Have you seen / heard about Stephan Feck (GER)'s 3m springboard dive?
Nope
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEt6ICn0fZ0
Slips off the board and essentially backflops.
That's the one.
owwwww
Just found out Dobriskey comes from my home town! Crazy!
I have no idea how I missed this news
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/olympics/track-field/7445254/Discus-champs-larger-than-life-celebration
i saw that on olympics tonight, last night. he got proper (happy) rage. brilliant celebration.
rage followed by robbery. you couldn't make it up
just when i thought table tennis couldn't get any more ridiculous... they go and play doubles on the same sized table.
ooooh! missed that bit. he's awesome :) :)