Sunday, August 12, 2012

Our last event of the Games

So, yesterday we headed back to the Olympic Park for our last event of London 2012, the bronze match in the women's handball, between Spain and South Korea.
The Spanish fans were out in force, which is probably why the Koreans were handing out those inflatable clapping sticks they're so fond of...
It was an incredibly close match, level at half time, level at full time, level after overtime and then level until about a minute before the end of "double overtime", after which it would've gone to penalties.
But, partly thanks to some great saves from the Spanish goalkeeper (they had one who just came on for any penalties - and saved four out of five!), the Spanish eventually ran out winners, 31-29.
Given that the Koreans were overwhelming favourites to win and that it had been such a titanic struggle, the Spanish were pretty darned happy about getting their bronze!
After that, it was a short walk over to the Park Live part of the Olympic Park, where the big screens are, to watch Mo Farrah go for his double gold in the 5000m (and get a tourist pic of Robin with the Olympic rings).
Here's the crowd, just before Mo's race...
And here they are, watching it...



Definitely one of the most memorable moments of an amazing two weeks. Then we popped for some (overpriced but quite tasty) Thai food and came back to the big screens to watch the men's 4 x 100m relay.
Britain really *has* been quite great these last couple of weeks. Anyway, as soon as the relay was over, we hotfooted it back to the station, past the stadium, to beat the crowds. Inside the stadium, at this very moment, Usain and his Jamaican teammates were celebrating their world record run. You could hear the roar.
This afternoon, I'm off to Hyde Park to watch the closing ceremony show by Blur, New Order and the Specials. Given that those first two are among my very favourite bands and that they're showing the closing ceremony itself on the big screens, it should be a fine way to round off this incredible time.

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