Setembro 1, 2008
Opening ceremony and heats
Again I am behind but have become addicted to resting and trying to watch as much of the Olympics as is humanly possible. I think I have almost seen every gold medal performance so far, although have to watch it in Chinese commentary, so some sports have been hard to work out exactly what’s going on and how they are scored etc.
I will start back with the Opening Ceremony and all I can really say is, it was absolutely awesome! We sat in the National indoor stadium for about 2 hours waiting, before lining up and marching into the ceremony. I missed almost all the ceremony as we only saw snippets on the big screens, but it sounded quite spectacular. It was pretty awesome as we lined up and I was presented with the Korowai (Maori Cloak) the team did a haka for me, which started off a pretty amazing occasion. We meandered towards the birds nest with thousands of Chinese lining both sides cheering and waving and saying things like “welcome to Beijing” “hello New Zealand” “Do you like Beijing”. As we neared the stadium I was given the New Zealand Flag and Dave Currie was marshalling the troops, trying to get us to line up and march in, in an orderly fashion.
As we got into the tunnel we could hear the roar of the crowd and watched as each country marched out. I was busy trying to control the flag which seemed to keep wanting to get tangled up. The moment finally came as we marched into the stadium, it was the most amazing feeling. I was so proud to be leading the team out, but also just completely dumb struck by the amount of people and the cheering. I didn’t know where to look and it is certainly an occasion I will remember for the rest of my life. The feeling was just unreal, I just wanted to keep marching around the track looking at everything again and again. I am so glad I was just apart of such an occasion and obviously carrying the flag made the moment that much more special.
Once we marched in and were marshalled to our position we had some photos, admired an amazing stadium and caught up with a few of the athletes from other countries we knew. There were speeches and the raising of the Olympic flag and then it was time to make my way toward the exit so I could get a quick get away and a good nights sleep before the heats the next day. It was amazing making my way through the crowd and looking at all the colours and outfits each different country had. I went straight through the middle of the US basketball team got a few high fives and checked out their bling (jewellery for all those oldies like me) before getting to the gate where I stayed to watch probably the highlight of the ceremony for me, the lighting of the flame.
It was incredible as we tried to work out, firstly how the flame would get to the roof, then watched as it was run around the stadium 70M above the ground with images of the torch relay projected onto the roof behind the man carrying it. He finally got under the flame and lit a fuse, at first it burnt slowly then fizzed up and around and lit the flame. I was absolutely buzzing and then power walked myself out the exit to the first bus as the fireworks exploded everywhere. The whole experience was just awesome and certainly something that will remain with me as a highlight of my life as long as I live.
Thankfully with my quick exit I was in bed 15minutes after the flame was lit and by the time I woke in the morning, had had a good 9 hours sleep and was ready for what I’m really here for, rowing. The heat was really just a formality. Being the top seed I got the easy heat with no one else ranked in the top 12 in the world. The race thankfully didn’t hold any surprises apart from a delay at the start as we waited for the Chinese sculler to show up, he never did so we started without him (he was later disqualified from the double, which he was also doing due to rules regarding qualification, so a pretty bad error on the Chinese teams behalf). Once the race started I got a small lead and slowly increased it as I went. I got to the end with plenty in reserve for the rest of the week (but the slowest heat winning time of the day).
That meant I qualified for the Quarter finals on Monday, so first goal successfully achieved. It was great to get out there and get the Olympics under way, especially with that race, as there was absolutely no pressure from any other scullers which will certainly increase round by round. New Zealand rounded out the day very successfully with wins to Emma Twigg, Men’s Pair, Woman’s Double, Men’s Double and second places to the Woman’s Pair and Men’s four. The Men’s Lightweight double then backed that up with a win on Sunday in their heat to progress everyone to their next respective rounds.
I will be back with the Quarters results after the race on Monday
Mahe
