As the rain poured down in Beijing on Thursday it seemed like a good opportunity to stay in and catch up on some blogging – unfortunately Bob’s internet connection disagreed, and would not allow this post. Trying again now, on Friday. It has been difficult to fit in posts, around ticket-hunting, sport-watching, exploring Beijing and [...]
Archive for the ‘The Games’ Category
Chasing the Gold Rush Around Beijing
Posted in Athletes, Beijing, Censorship, Media, The Games, Tickets, Track and Field, World Records, tagged 2008 Olympics, 400m, Beijing Olympics, bmx, bradly wiggins, british gold medals, chris hoy, christine ohuruogu, cycling, germain mason, laoshan, olympics, shanaze reade, victoria pendleton on 22 August 2008 | 1 Comment »
Liu Xiang Withdraws in Beijing
Posted in Athletes, Public expectation, The Games, Track and Field, tagged 110m hurdles, Beijing Olympics, bird's nest, high hurdles, Liu Xiang on 18 August 2008 | 5 Comments »
Liu Xiang has been forced out of the 110m hurdles at the first hurdle (apologies), due to a leg injury. Round 1 of his event began this morning, and, but not before rumours were fluttering around the Bird’s Nest that he was injured. The crowd were on edge, but when Liu valliently came out for [...]
Kicking Off in Shanghai
Posted in Athletes, Beijing, The Games, Tickets, tagged 2008 Olympics, Beijing Olympics, belgium, football, haka, new zealand, olympic football, shanghai stadium on 15 August 2008 | 1 Comment »
Bob’s Olympic experience kicked off on Wednesday at the football qualifiers in Shanghai. The game could hardly be described as thrilling – New Zealand lost 1-0 to Belgium in a match so one-sided that the Belgians appeared to miss opportunities out of embarrassment for their opponents more than inability. The highlight for the smattering of [...]
Olympic Rowing Interview – David Blackham
Posted in Athletes, Beijing, Drugs, Guest Posts, Preparation, The Games, tagged 2008 Olympics, Beijing Olympics, chinese rowing, coxless fours, olympic gold, olympic rowing, rowing, Zac Purchase on 15 August 2008 | 1 Comment »
With the Olympic Rowing finals around the corner, Bob has interviewed British junior coach David Blackham to find out his thoughts on the emergence of a strong Chinese team, the weather conditions and the chance of the British rowers. Here is what he had to say, before heading out to see the Games for himself:
David [...]
Mystery of the Missing Olympic Tickets
Posted in Public expectation, Sponsors, The Games, Tickets, tagged Beijing Olympics, olympic tickets, empty seats, BOCOG, olympic orgnaisers on 13 August 2008 | 7 Comments »
The familiar site of a huge sporting event with empty seats has struck again in Beijing it seems. Many of the lower profile events – despite being completely sold out! – have failed to draw a full crowd.
This is really upsetting for fans, particularly those who have not been able to purchase tickets legitimately, but [...]
Yao Bounces Back But China Face Basketball Battle
Posted in Athletes, Culture, The Games, tagged basketball, olympic basketball, Yao ming on 24 July 2008 | 2 Comments »
Yao Ming has returned from injury to compete for the first time in 5 months just weeks ahead of the Olympic Games in his home country. However in the same week the groups for the Olympic basketball competition have been announced and Yao’s China team will face an extremely strong line up to qualify for [...]
Epic Wimbledon Battle Boosts Beijing Significance
Posted in Athletes, London 2012, Public expectation, The Games, tagged beijing 2008, Beijing Olympics, federer, nadal, olympic tennis, olympics, rafael nadal, roger federer, tennis, wimbledon, wimbledon 2008, wimbledon final on 6 July 2008 | 2 Comments »
This post is being written from SW19 where today Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer made history, beautifully.
It is four years until Wimbledon will be an Olympic venue, but today the most famous tennis club in the world played host to a such exhibition of sporting excellence that the Greek Gods themselves would have struggled to [...]
Liu Xiang’s World Record Tumbles Before Beijing
Posted in Athletes, Public expectation, The Games, Track and Field, World Records, tagged 100m hurdles, dayron robles, high hurdles, Liu Xiang, olympics, ostrava, world record, world record holder on 12 June 2008 | 6 Comments »
Cuba’s Dayron Robles has toppled Liu Xiang’s 110m hurdles world record. The 21-year-old clocked 12.87 seconds, beating Liu’s time by just 0.01 seconds and smashing his own personal best. Liu was not racing.
Check out Robles’ reaction here:
Olympic favourite in more ways than one, Liu Xiang is not only expected to successfully [...]
Will Dwain Chambers Make Beijing?
Posted in Athletes, Drugs, Legacy, Protests, The Games, Track and Field, tagged 100m, athletics, Drugs, dwain chambers, olympic ban, olympic drugs, olympic qualifiers, olympics, performance enhancing drugs, thg on 8 June 2008 | 4 Comments »
In the BBC Olympic blog Adrian Warner revealed on Friday that key figures in Athens “think Dwain Chambers has a good chance of winning his drugs appeal against the British Olympic Association and making it to the Beijing Games”.
Drugs is an issue that has come to overshadow track and field athletics (amongst other sports of [...]
New 100m World Record By Usain Bolt
Posted in Athletes, The Games, Track and Field, World Records, tagged 100 meters, 100m, 100m world record, asafa powell, Beijing Olympics, fastest man in the world, new york grand prix, olympics, sprint, tyson gay, usain bolt, world record on 1 June 2008 | 4 Comments »
21 year old sprinter Usain Bolt has just broken the 100m world record, clocking 9.72 seconds at the New York Grand Prix meeting. What’s really impressive is that this was only the 5th time Bolt has competed in the 100m, because he is better over 200m!
Until footage of this race reaches youtube see Bolt here [...]
