Row, Row, Row your Canoe and/or Kayak

 

Again an unplanned exciting day on Saturday at Harry Potter!  This time I actually did take it easy in staying at Emily and Christopher’s on Sunday… was hoping to get down to see some other friends south of London but my body needed a break sadly.

Monday was an extremely early start, but as you’ll see, totally worth it. I was up before the sun (around 5.00 am) to catch an early train to get to Eton Dorney, in Slough, northwest of London, to see Canoe/Kayak sprints! Of course Canadaman came too.

I also discovered some Aussies…

 

I even spotted Adam van Koeverden, Canadian prospect for a medal, in practice!

 Again the tickets were just superb!  I was about four sections away from the finish line and it was just superb. 

 

And some French! These suits do seem to attract attention!

 

The races themselves were great.  I got to see the heats and the semi-finals in four different events.  In fact the race commentator was Canadian!  Superb.  The funniest thing was trying to figure out how everyone was doing in the first 750 metres when they were out of sight!

Apparently, I was told later, that I ended up on CTV’s rowing coverage… a screen grab for proof!

On the way out I noticed a bunch of Canadians gathered around what looked like an exit for VIPs or some such.  So I got chatting to them… and found out they had all come over from Oakville, which I’m gathering is a hub for Canadian rowing.

I waited around and was pleasantly pleased.

First… out comes (future) bronze medalist (by that I mean later that week) Mark Oldershaw!

 

And then, out of nowhere, Adam Van Koeverden! 

 

Meeting these two was definitely unexpected.  But a great surprise!  On the way out I even got to hang out with Wendlock (or is it Mandeville?)

 

Speaking of meeting people, I ran into Amelie, who I had met at the Sweden/Canada match up in Newcastle.  She had been to see the men’s 100m final and said it was quite thrilling!  We exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch in case any other tickets came up.

I got back to home base and had a bit of a snooze before we headed out (with Chris’ parents as well) to see Beach Volleyball! It was held at Horse Guard’s Parade and it was an awesome venue to be in… despite the rain!

The games themselves were very exciting, as well as the atmosphere.  It was interesting… it seemed that Beach Volleyball was a bit more “North American-ized” compared to other sports.  At most Olympic events, you go, you watch the sport, and it’s very pure, like having the tv on mute if you’re watching at home.  At Beach Volleyball – there’s always music between each point, technical time-outs are quite frequent and there are dancers too! Plus the awesomeness that is game show announcer Peter Dickson (who seems to do each of the Ant and Dec game shows in the UK).

Tomorrow: a full day in the Olympic Park!

Cheers,

Vick.