With gold medals already being won (although not by Britain), the 2012 Olympics are under way very nicely. This second day of sporting action is just as packed as the first with the addition of a few things we haven't seen yet - diving, hockey, canoe slalom, shooting, sailing and water polo. The swimming yesterday was great fun, it looks like there is a little more of that to come today, but not quite as much. There's also plenty more tennis, lots of beach volleyball and some weightlifting as well. Plenty to peruse as the second day gets underway.
London 2012, Day 2
Published by Christine Blachford on
Morning! GB Badminton on NOW!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2t7c
watching the aussies play the kiwis in the womens hockey, not really a fan of the blue pitch, its a little bright.
olympic record to emily seebohm, geez i used to watch her dad play footy for glenelg when i was a kid back in the 80's, yes glenelg are the enemy......
but its good to see his daughter do well.
Been watching the swimming whilst laying in bed. Been a few good team gb performances!
Had a lie in, then went for a quick run (the Olympics will do that to ya!) and now I'm hours behind. only Day 2 and I'm playing catchup already :)
Watching a bit of handball, I'm not sure it's not just basketball with a lower goal?
It's hard to watch 4 gymnastic things at once, I don't know who to have my eyes on. TV makes this easier.
Missed pretty much all this morning so far = vet.
I guess it only helps if you're cheering for a particular person that the TV always misses.
There's another cycling thing going on now. Another chance for me to not understand it! Also, apparently, two Brazilian riders with exactly the same name - number 41 and 42. Commentators can't get that wrong then!
new zealand beat the aussies in the womens hockey, first time ever at the olympics
Ben Ainslie doing well in the sailing: now in 3rd - up from 10th. About halfway through race.
I watched some of the swimming heats for the women, the final is at 8.15pm and should be very close
Everyone knows the Olympic organisers managed to get the wrong Korean flag earlier in the week. At least they didn't play the Borat song instead of the Uzbek national anthem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0bSuXmF7E0
Ben Ainslie #2 in race 1 :) (If you've not guessed, I like sailing)
The thing I don't understand about sailing is, whilst it clearly is skillful and I couldn't do it, is it not mostly dependent on the wind?
Yes - although you learn how to read the wind (strength, direction changes) and become able to predict / guess it. #tactics
Catching up with some of the gymnastics from earlier, looking out for Amy in the crowd :)
Think of it like F1 drivers constantly tweaking wing angles and changing wings every time they change direction or there is the slightest change in wind speed/angle or a rival interferes with the airflow to their car.
I did a little sand yachting a long time ago and it take a lot of skill to get it right. I only had one sail and one rope and was strapped into a seat I also didn't have to figure out what the water was doing but I still spent a lot of time on my head.
Hehe, I don't want to belittle the effort at all, but I just wonder if it's more finding the right bit of wind than particularly being better than the person next to you. Sounds like it's harder than I think though!
The thing you have to remember is sails don't work by the wind pushing them. They work exactly like wings with air flowing over the surfaces. So the best sailors in the world are like Adrian Newey in real time while reading the water, wind direction and a whole bunch of other boats.
I think it is one of the more all round sports of the games, where physical ability has to be matched as many mental factors in order to suceed - I say this as an instructor.
A couple of crashes in the women's road race. That course really is narrow.
you'd never see me up in the rafters!
Seen loads of punctures too.
Booo.
TV switched to table tennis. Can't take it seriously. Tiny table, tiny ball. It's like tilt-shift sporting.
I also can only tell when a point has been won because the player is pumping their fist.
The GB player won! Yay! (no idea)
Andy Murray has apparently just gone on court
Team GB up in the gymnastics now and I haven't finished catching up. Silly sports.
Cyclists have just hit some very heavy rain
I was wondering earlier how slippery it must be avoiding all those puddles.
Emma Stonier @emmastonier
2m
Cyclists are 10 mins away from my home and it's just started thunder, lightning and raining. Prob should ditch the umbrella!
There have been some fallers.
Lead group is down to 3 riders going for the medals, back into Richmond Park on the way back to London. They have a lead of 35 seconds or so.
Agnieszka Radwanska, the Wimbledon finalist some 20 days ago, has just lost in the first round, playing exactly on the same court...
@bbc5live Breaking News: Paula Radcliffe is out of the Olympic games through injury. #bbc2012
3km to go, a Brit, an American and a Dutch for the medals.
Ooh!
Very happy to see My Murray is doing well today, been following the match throughout the race.
Wow close finish! Armitstead really tried at the end there but a silver is still pretty good, and our first medal?
I think it must be! Woohoo!
Now I will have to keep refreshing the page :) http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/medals/countries
Beth just did well didn't she
Amazing!
16.133 !!
So good. I hope she can do it again when it counts, she deserves it!
She is soo old for a female gymnast ;) Defo deserves a medal (gold) esp at home :)
Just saw tweets saying Paula Radcliffe will not run the marathon.
Found some synchronised diving on the TV, which reminds me I must catch up with some of the swimming.
Yay for Andy!
he did super well today, very proud. He was playing strongly yesterday but for him to convert that into a good performance today in the singles makes me very happy. You could tell he was looking for a win yesterday.
Amy will be sad Stan lost tho.
Super slow mo on the archery showing the arrow and bow both madly vibrating as the arrow leaves the bow. Amazing they can control something like that
very promising he managed to pick himself straight back up within a day :) I suppose he can solely focus on the singles medals now
he wasn't the only reason they lost yesterday.. there were two murrays in that team. silly jamie
Murray signing for pretty much everyone there. cute!
synchronized diving is a bit strange but i do like they have a little pool to sit in after their performance
Should be more synchronised events. Synchronised archery? synchronised hockey?
Seems a waste to have three springboards and only two divers
Hehe, I said that to Mr C!
speaking to me in person means duplicating information. just talk to me in the comments ;)
synchonized ipods
My bad.
Synchronising watches
boxing.
Blockbusters
I do not understand those towel things. They take them up to the diving board then throw them down and pick them up again. But they also go in all the water so they're not for drying.
last few hundred yards in the Star sailing, and GBR have just taken the lead
Some good tactics right at the end, it was v close on the line ... confirmation to come.
syncronized car parking!
Star sailing: BRA took the 1st back on the line, GBR 2nd.
A medal?
Nono - that was the 2nd race. We're currently 3rd overall after only 2, plenty more races to come yet.
Ah, okay. Still very good!
Yup - these guys won G in Beijing :)
News from Wimbles today, due to the rain and lack of play, those with court 1 tickets could get into centre court today for all their matches!! how lovely!!
ahh that's awesome!
Have to pause to watch the F1 highlights. I must say the streams on the BBC are flippin' awesome with their pausability and their chapters and stuff.
I have uploaded my photos from Tuesday-Friday from pre-Games prep in Weymouth, football in Cardiff and sightseeing in London
https://picasaweb.google.com/116729449567705331557/20120708London2012Olympics
These are... patriotic: http://t.co/zETe42Do
GBR in beach volleyball atm
After all the ticketing issues where people who desperately wanted to go to events couldn't get what they wanted I thought I would do a snapshot of the events currnetly being covered now. All I am going to do is watch each for a few seconds and give a percentage of occupied seats. Obviously things like camera angle and time of event etc may give a skewed view.
Archery @Lords raining 60% although some stands totally empty so I am assuming there were no tickets available for these
Football Uruguay-Senegal @ Wembley 40%
Tennis Tsonga-Belluci @Wimbledon 50% although cameras hardly showing the crowd but lots of green seat obvious.
Football South Korea-Switzerland Half time @Coventry 60%
Football Japan-Morocco @ Newcastle 70%
Basketball Spain-China @Basketball Arena 40%
Table Tennis Hong Kong-North Korea @ExCel Arena 60% but crowd coverage by cameras limited
Volleyball USA-Serbia(Men) @Earls Court40%
Beach Volleyball GB-Canada (Women) @HorseGuardsParade 60%
Table tennis Japan-Russia @ExcelArena 60%. Cameras hardly covering the crowd. No commentary. Seriously. BBC put on a special channel but broadcast it only with crowd noise. You would think they could give some apprentice commentator a chance. Amy would have done it for free
Fencing Dumitrscu(Romania)-Occhuzzi(Italy) @Excel Arena 40% but crowd coverage by cameras poor When did fencers start having windows in their masks instead of just mesh?
There are loads of things with no commentary. Handball earlier. Tennis yesterday.
If anyone is properly watching any of those and has more accurate figures please feel free to tell me I am talking nonsense.
Can't take my eyes off the fencing makse though. They look like 1960's sci fi space helmets with the window in the front now
They have 24HD and 24SD channels on Sky put up just for BBC Olympic coverage. Makes no sense not to have commentary. Especially for something like tennis that is popular or handball that we never see outside Olympics
Christ thats one hell of an improvement since Thursday. Only 15,000, if that, there. I really don't understand why they didn't use stadiums in London.
That is based only on a very quick viewing. It may be that the higher seats or those in other stands are not so well occupied.
I have insiders, I'll try and get a better picture.
Piece on BBC News about the crowds
Mr C said that yesterday Legard was doing volleyball, and didn't know the sport at all. There must be an expert somewhere!
The BBC got an expert for handball, Paul Bray... maybe they had Legard on the books and just didn't know where to stick him for two weeks.
Alli was rather annoyed at how little analysis of the tactics (etc) he was giving us.
Our Silver :) @L_ArmiTstead: So many people deserve a slice! http://t.co/N08jPnec
So basically far too many tickets have been given to the media, sporting associations and the IOC. Good excuse but utter rubbish. First women's football match at Hampden had 10-15,000 because no-one wnated the tickets. 35,000 were supposed to go to schools and youth organisation but the organisers made a totl kick up of the distribution.
I imagine all the media etc tickets will be in the one area and not randomly spread around the stadia
Yup - the big areas that are empty are near the court / floor / pool / other prime positions.
Security fail
Woman in red top and green trousers walked at the front of the Indian team (all in yellow/gold) at the opening ceremony.
Seb claims she was an openeing ceremony cast member
I've had the attendance at St. James quoted as 'alright'... https://twitter.com/raisbeck10/status/229632637784973312/photo/1
I imagine it being a Sunday helps a lot.
Sunday in Newcastle before the season starts means people are desperate for a game
How did no-one in security spot her? She is not exactly blending into the background
http://www.thestar.com/sports/london2012/article/1233722--london-2012-mystery-woman-gate-crashed-team-india-at-opening-ceremonies
The beach volleyball ladies are rather happy.
GB womens hockey already 1-0 up against Japan
OMG. Whoever designed that hockey pitch must have been colour blind. That is horrendous. Blue pitch outlined in nip your eyes out pink AAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!
this is scary because people with court 1 tickets and most of the people working on the outside courts are there watching apparently (according to my friend who is working there/ currently on centre watching) I honestly would pay to buy more tennis tickets this week. The idea of only having wednesday makes me sad. There being empty seats which i would happily pay for but can't makes me really sad.
You know what colour I like? Green, green is nice.
Not with that pink though. The only think that goes with that is a welder's mask and 50 paracetemol
Gosh i hope Tsonga gets through!
At least we have Barry Davies.
GB 2-0
GB 3-0
Wait a minute... we are good at something!
Some good stick-skills...
And something vaguely conventional and mainstream
not following it.. are you talking hockey??
yup
Gb 4-0
amazing!
Is Mr C around, cos I've finished my ideas on Quali.
Does anyone know if Japan are any good at this or are they the hockey equivalen of Badoer?
I have switched to the swimming now.
He's not, is it a guest post?
It is, basically my way of explaining a couple of maths-y ways to change it, and some more normal ones as well
The rankings suggest Japan are #9, England (no GB) #4.
Want to email it over? [email protected]
:)
Just heard about the plans to give students and the army the empty seats for free or for discount. yaaaaayyyyy! more olympics for me.. if that happens.
World Record in the 100m butterfly
Freeloading students :)
Seb is just desperate to fill seats. Wouldn't be surprised if he gave some to G4S but they probably couldn't get anyone there before Xmas
Sent - hope it isn't too much of a distraction ;)
♥
hehe! you're just jealous!
Tsonga is a roller coaster to watch, just like Murray. Gosh I'm happy he won that!!
England goal!!
Ohh wait, done it again. TeamGB football 1-0 :)
Cor, someone woke TeamGB up today!
mens or womens?
this was quite packed when I was there, heaps of Americans. Lots left when I did though so if they were showing the end it may have been a bit emptier.
ah dad has insisted we put the football on :/ i see it's the mens.
Mens
keep your eye on locog,they've been releasing more tennis tickets.
have they?! i checked here http://www.tickets.london2012.com/browse earlier and they said there werent any tickets available for the tennis :(
you have to check quite regularly. They said more will go up "in the evenings"
Who or what is locog? Is it anything to do with cogs as the name would suggest?
London organising committee of the Olympic games
No cogs then
They are coging a lot of stuff up, thats for sure.
London Organising Committee Of Games (or similar)
for the next day? or for random days? I shall bookmark it and check it constantly in the evening :D
Hehehehe!
I thought it was only ice hockey players who got hit in the face with sticks. That looked like it hurt.
At least you have some sort of protection on the ice.
my friend got hit round the head accidentally in a kent hockey match once, knocked her clean out and she had such a bad concussion. Hockey is scary.
Rebecca's swimming is up - all change channels now.
And now someone got an absolute whacking of the ball on her knee/shin.
She'll have to pull of something special, only just scraped into the final!
She does prefer 800m to this 400m.
Another hockey player injured. This one got hit right on the knee with the ball. That has to smart a little. Off she goes too
300m, and Becky is in contention for the Bronze.
Good start for GB womens hockey then... disappointing second after the first and few injuries which isn't so nice.
Bronze at the last turn, ...
goo becky!!
SPRINT !!
Wohoo!
Woo, medal.
Huzzah!
yaayy!!! bronze for team GB!
Was she not meant to win this since she won it the last time?
take that, frankie boyle!
She almost fluked the win last time, and defos prefers the longer distances, but :D all the same
She's all emotional, bless.
Surprised by the people wearing nose clips, I would have thought they need all the oxygen they can get.
They wear them to stop water going up their nose
I am aware of the purpose but not many of them do and the speed they are going, I'd have thought oxygen was more important.
Blatantly the ones with clips are to ones without gills.
I hadn't thought of that!
Gills are a huge advantage because there is a lot more oxygen in water than in air
one of the badminton players just broke a racket... against his leg on follow through!
Been there done that. Though more to do with bad temper after missing a shot
am still watching the tennis. the gbr women seem to be doing very well in the olympics so far, so i'm routing for them more than the men i think. go girl power!
I was in that mood on thursday.... :-/
Badminton was treated very seriously at my school. Two of the boys in my year were Scottish singles champions in different years and two of the girls won Scottish doubles titles. I was a late starter so I lost a lot to the good players. Almost every remotely compatitive player though had a habit of smashing the racquet into the side of their leg if they played a bad shot. I used to have a racquet where the head was about 15° out of line
Just seen this mentioned on twitter for anyone who is not easily embarrassed
http://www.argos.co.uk/m/static/Product/partNumber/9043893/Trail/searchtext%3EUNION+JACK.htm
Can't see many shy people getting on a train etc to an event wearing that
UAE have just scored. #ohdear
Just like England's Euro2012
At least we were managed then by someone who knew what they were doing.
Michael Phelps is an animal
actually incredible!!
Presumably an aquatic one.
Lochte under real pressure
The french win it!
How did America lose that?
France!
#spoilers
I just can't believe they lost the lead Phelps gave them
Ooh, I love a good relay.
Ohh. I'm not live.
Are you on some kind of delay
Self imposed delay curtosy of BBC online
Thats why you should never claim it as a two-horse race.
Becky's medal :)
GB defence just got opened up at the football.
Mr Monaco gives our Becks the medal. Crossing the streams.
Crikey, Spain are getting beat by Honduras as well.
That's what you call a great substitution
Wow, he was just jogging on
Game over 3-1
Nice goal by Sturridge
And he's being panned on Twitter - that'll shut them up
One goal doesn't mean you've had a good game.
Agreed, but these are the type of people who will think that it does.
For anyone planning tomorrow's viewing: http://www.london2012.com/schedule-and-results/day=30-july/all-day.html
Do you think my work will notice if I call in sick for the next two weeks?
What is the significance of the blue, red, pink and purple colours?
So far, I've only worked out that blue usually equals wet sports, except for weightlifting.
Can't believe women are playing beach volleyball at this time of night in London in tiny bikinis. Must be freezing
Argentina team wearing bikinis. Americans wearing jumpers
oh my goodness, those poor women!
It must be through choice if one lot are wearing jumpers
crazy ladies!
Huge crowd at the badminton. Looks like it is full
the men's faces when they are given the flowers is so funny!!
I need to plan my travel for tomorrow. First visit to the Olympic park!
in the swimming this is :)
Once again, I must call it a night. Kept up with the sports I wanted to today, no idea how it's going to work tomorrow. So much fun! Thanks for the comments, peoples.
Mr C will no doubt be along at some point if the sports keep going till 1am :)
Good night Christine. Good luck keeping up at work
Night. See you back tomorrow :)
london bridge on the jubilee line to stratford. should only take 20mins on a normal day :)
Spain should have had a penalty, just got taken out from behind. Will be heading home as it stands.
hopefully the comments can keep an eye on sports you want to know about maybe? so you can check those while on your break? Sleep well!
Spain seem to have slightly lost their discipline and the plot
One of the favourites heading home after two games, hardly surprising they are getting frustrated.
Spain lose to Honduras. Spain go for the referee
GB Ouseph is playing NOW!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video/p00w2vkj
running a bit late, will clash with MOTOGP!
Honduras beat Spain! Thats incredible, just incredible.
Also I've noticed St. James have installed a scoreboard just for the Olympics, it would be nice if they kept that after...
I click over to badminton and thought Karun was playing for GB
just a few feet taller!
those GB shirts look really uncomfortable...
You would have thought the on screen graphics would show which team is which. It happens with every league football match so why not with the Olympics. Just switched to Hungary-Denmark handball and have no idea which is which
coming from wimbles
Eeeek roger on court 2 tomorrow. I might finally see him at the Olympics! God I hope all the stands are still empty so I don't have to stress about it #selfish
Ooo Karun has it back in his favour
and no
of course! Wimbles to Waterloo on the train then, and over to Stratford on jubilee line.. may take an hour.
May be quicker to change tubes a bit.. and go Waterloo to bank on the waterloo and city - then the central line to Stratford?
Now yes = 1st set.
hehehe! court 2 looks to have a good line up all day! so if you camp out it'll certainly be interesting!
awesome badders slo-mo's ...
The racquets look tiny because they are so big
how could the ref. call that?!
laguna seca motogp in a few mins... might be worth a watch..
Tiredness has overcome me. Night all.
Just switched to it and plan to stay there for the whole race
bassano suggests district line from southfields to notting hill gate then central to Stratford. So many options!
Might have to leave before roger :( :( :(
Stupid hockey.
Who is playing in the hockey? Maybe aim get there late.
GB vs Argentina and Germany v Belgium. Don't mind if I miss some of the first match, as long as I see some/the end. Theres 70 minutes of play so I don't need to see it all when there's tennis on that I prefer :)
this is why we need an f1 race in london.
still haven't seen any logistical travel disasters as yet... http://sidepodcast.com/post/chaos-silverstone-logistical-failure-uk-motorsport#comment-3047988
Some tennis tickets now available to buy
http://www.tickets.london2012.com/browse?form=search&tab=oly&sport=8229&event=&venue=&fromDate=2012-07-31&toDate=2012-08-12&morning=1&afternoon=1&evening=1&show_available_events=1
Works better with the link
tomorrow will be the first test with commuters back in the mix, then next week when athletics starts it's suddenly an extra 160,000 people a day.
My tube was full today which Im sure isnt normal for 8am Sunday morning but all the other ones i used, including heading towards stratford prior to the evening sessions, were fine.
should be interesting. amazed that our trip to london was exactly like normal, could have been anytime of the year.