Final Day; Duet second round

Notice the spelling mistake  yesterdays report? 

Todays competition was for the four remaining duets positions. I do not know which other countries duets are through to the Olympics but todays four are Israel (168.580), Switzerland (165.98), Austria (165.1) and Hungary (161.64). 

So now it is the countdown to the Olympics. The event has been a good taster of what to expect  at the Olympics, the overall standard of the countries that have qualified is high. Any one who has tickets to the event will be in for some spectacular swimming which Television will not do justice.

See every one soon 

Day Four; Free Teams

What a day! the teams were fantastic especially there Russian, Ukraine, Japan, Spain and Mexico. I tried to make notes, but now back at the hotel I cannot read them! All the teams had a lift in their routine and all the top teams had at least one throw. The Spanish team had one member dive over another member who was being lifted in a Crab position. Two teams had one member lifting another in handstand on their hands. The Mexican team used a Karate theme in their routine which was very entertaining with two throws without a rest the first lift first the team member did a tuck somersault a the second member did a Katate flying kick, like Jackie Chan. 

There will be no American team at the Olympics but the Duet may still be in with a chance. Some of the lifts and throws had to be seen to be believed and any one not in Synchro would swear that the lifting swimmers were using the pool floor because of the hight that the thrown member was achieving

 

Final placings are Russia 1st; Spain 2nd and Japan 3rd so at the Olympics the teams will be Great Britten, Russia, Spain, Japan, Australia, Egypt, China  and Canada 

Tomorrow the second round of duets so I think I will be able to guess the duets swimming in the Olympics then 

Day three; Free Duet

Another great day, the Russian and Spanish duets were fantastic to watch, and the Ukrainian duet I think beat the Japanese duet, (I have left my score records at the pool). Some  of the assisted lifts were high and one duet did a brilliant mirror action of putting on make up, again a close competition at the top. I am even more excited about the actual Olympics as there will be  China, Canada, Australia and Egypt there. Tomorrow the Free Teams.

Day two

Technical Teams; some great performances today still with the Russians and Spain in provisional first and second place with Japan in 3rd  Ukraine 4th the british team are in 8th place but were swimming without Jenna of course.

I think that some of the walk on's were very close to time but the entries were very fast and I do not think that any team took more than 5 seconds to enter the water and no team was got to the maximum time allowed. The technical elements were clean and easy to spot and some of the cadence actions were fast.

one correction to yesterdays results the provisional Tech duet placings are 1st Russia 2nd Spain 3rd Japan (These are provisional)

If todays performances are any thing to go by Saturday will be fantastic and it will be a real fight for the third place as the top three teams qualify for the Olympics I think on the present situation we can assume that Russia and Spain will qualify but will it be Japan or Ukraine making up the final placings for the Olympics (5 counties have already qualified through other competitions)

 

Train travel to Aquatics

 If any one  is planning to come by train to the event use the South Eastern Fast Service from St Pancras International to Stratford International you can use the same ticket for Stratford if it is a standard any time return or off-peak return or single, not sure about other tickets, if they have "any permitted"  written on you should be able use it. It cuts out the underground and two changes. Also it only takes 8 minutes as against 35. Both Stratford and Stratford International are next to the Westfield Centre, so you can cut through the Westfield Centre to get to the Aquatics Centre. There are plenty of guides to ensure that you do not get lost, they wear a orange tabard with Olympic Park written on it, and carry a big foam pointing finger.

For any one not familiar with Kings Cross and St Pancras they are next to each other with about a five to ten minute walk between trains

Competition day one - Technical Duets

 First day of competition; the technical duets, 33 countries represented unfortunately the british duet was withdrawn because of Jenna's injury so I will have to wait until the Olympics to see it. There was some great swimming, the Russians provisionally in first place and Spain in second,and Ukraine in third (I think) I will find out the final placings tomorrow, when any penalty points are deducted. I did see a few timing errors in the Russian Duet but none in the Spanish. The Spanish duet were bang on 2-35, 0.1 second more and they would have received a penalty point. I preferred the Spanish duet for entertainment and I think I would have put them in first place but the Russian duet may have had better technical execution 

The standard is high and I am looking forward to the Free Duets to see what they come up with there 

There was a little drama when the music master played the wrong music for two teams, but every thing went smoothly overall. 

I am enjoying the event the organisation is good with plenty of transport between the hotel and the venue as we can use the athletes bus as well as our own officials bus, as some of the athletes are in the premier inn across the road from us. 

Tomorrow the technical duets 

News from the TEST EVENT : First Impressions

News from Ian who is timekeeping at the Olympic Test Event this week...

The Olympic site still looks like a building site but it is obvious that what is left to do is all cosmetic. The trip from the hotel takes about 45 minutes of which a good 10 minutes is having a tour of the site to get to the Aquatics Centre. The centre is HUGE there are two 50 meter pools one is the competition pool and is 10 lanes wide and the other is only 8 lanes wide and is the  warm up pool. The first time I went onto the pool side the diving boards did not look 10 meters high! It is also reminiscent of Ponds Forge on the pool side. Though the pool is warm it is not uncomfortably so. I have been issued with my "uniform" for the event two t-shirts and they are not pink (thank goodness) rather a turquoise blue with "London prepares series" written on the back, I also got a rain jacket with the same printed on it. 

To day we had to rehearse what we had to do to check that the systems are working correctly and the announcers had to rehearse their role with members of the Olympic management teams acting as competitors amongst the "competitors" was our very own Gemma Wright.

Saw the GB team in training today Jenna Randle has inured her wrist so I think that the duet has been withdrawn but the team are still swimming. Based on what I have seen over the last two days it is going to be a good show and the scores will be close. 

One country is using the same piece of music from Slumdog that we once used for a team, I almost expected to see the yellow hats of the C.o.L.! 

I will close now and try and send another report tomorrow