Final Friday of the Games

In hindsight, I am rather annoyed that I got tickets for the two Friday evenings rather than the two Saturdays, which from a British viewpoint were the some of the greatest sporting evenings ever.  Of course, that I got 5 sessions at all made me one of the lucky ones really. And at least my second Friday was a beautiful day for taking photos. So I had another go around the park.

One thing I had noticed about the ticketing is that price didn't seem to be reflected in the quality of the tickets. This was my most expensive ticket, and while in a good position to see the Olympic flame, I was at one end, so not ideal for seeing racing, or indeed throwing events. And even the terrific pole vault final was at the other end, so the binoculars came in handy. As did the big screen at the other end.

Major event was the USA winning the 4x100m women's relay in a world record time. One very rarely sees a world record - I have only seen a handful in 35 years, but even more rarely a women's world record, all but the newer women's events having world records dating back to the eighties and mostly held by East European women. Now it doesn't take a genius to work out why men's records have all fallen regularly and all the women's have not. It is the drug abuse which was rampant in the 80s behind the iron curtain, and the application of steroids can do more performance enhancing for women than men. Those of us of a certain age will remember the astonishing bulky musculature of these "women." No surprise that with the fall of the iron curtain the iron women went as well, But here a lithe set of very able US women managed to knock the 1985 GDR record from the record books.

More disappointment on the British side in the relays. The men's 4x100m squad got themselves disqualified AGAIN. Our ineptitude here is truly remarkable. Their time in the heat would have been good enough for bronze in the final. But they exchanged too late in the last handover. While I was too far away to actually see that, I knew something had gone wrong. While the crowd was cheering, I was watching the reaction of the Brits. Hands on heads is not the typical reaction of a winning sprinter.

And the men's 4x400 squad couldn't quite make bronze. Martyn Rooney was catching up the Trinidadian but had too much to do. My attention was so fixed on this that I must confess I didn't see the Bahamas beating the US team to gold - one of the major results of the Games.

And since it was the night and I was on my own, I could take a last leisurely look around the park, lit up. At least as magic by night as by day. Impressed? Well I was.