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Saw the GB team in training today Jenna Randle has inured her wrist so I think that the duet has been withdrawn but the team are still swimming.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