Hello from London

[nitsansh]

Day 3

Today, unlike yesterday and tommorrow, we had just one event, which was a good idea, because we could have more time to rest. I actually got up quite early, about 7AM if I recall correctly, but my partner Yehuda wanted to sleep longer. So we decided to split for the morning, and meet at 2PM at ISSTA hospitality room where I thought many Israelis will come to see Lee Korzitz medal race.
Eventually I spent over 2 hours at this place, and got late to ISSTA headquarters which is at Park Plaza hotel near Waterloo station. The Jubilee line was crowded again, but I only had to travel one stop.
I was surprised to find the place locked and no one around. I called their phone number (you won't get it from me) and one of the staff came up to open the door. By this time Lee's race was almost over and it was obvious she won't get a medal.
Also, the TV didn't receive the sailing channel of the BBC, And even a hotel employee couldn't fix it. But maybe that it was better not to see it...
Poor Lee... she was in medal position for all 10 previous races and blew it in th last one... It appears from the results that she trailed from start to finish, and at no stage during the race was anywhere near medal position.
To be continued...

 

[nitsansh]

day 3 part 2

Meanwhile, Yehuda showed up about half hour late, and after a while we headed to Wembley for the men's semifinal between Japan and Mexico.
We decided to take the Bakerloo line to Marylebone station and transfer for the overground train to Wembley Stadium station, which is the closest of 3 stations near Wembley to the stadium.
Unlike the X-ray machines that are used at other venues, at Wembley they do a frisk search (search on the body by hands) and manual check of the bags.
Our seats were in row 20 of the top level, almost parallel to Japan's goal line in the first half, which means 3 of the 4 goals were scoed at the far side. Japan scored first, Mexico equalized before the break (that was the only goal at the near end), and then scored twice in the second half to win the match 3:1 and secure their first ever Olympic medal in football.
The stadium was sold-out with 82 thousand spectators, probably 90% of them didn't care who plays and cheered for both teams...

I have to end now because they close this place in a few minutes...

Tommorrow we should wake up early because we are going to the athletics morning session which starts at 10.00AM. In the evening we have tickets for the men's volleyball quarterfinals, which start at 19.30 The matches are Poland vs Russia and Bulgaria vs Germany.

That's all for now...