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G'day,
What's fresh in my mind is this morning's expedition to the Sydney regatta
centre at Penrith. As this is on the western edge of Sydney (we live on the
northern edge) we chose to drive and use the park and ride facility - in
just over an hour we were in our seats ready for action but the Gods were
not ready. The area was enveloped in a heavy fog and we couldn't see over to
the other side of the water. When the first kayaking semi-final started
half an hour late the fog had morphed into a light mist, by the time we left
Penrith the sun was shining. We got away just in time as a temp. of 34 C.
was forecast.
We saw a range of 1 and 2 person kayak and canoe semi-finals. As one who
can't maintain her balance on anything I was so impressed by the canoeists
who rowed on bended knee - a sight we don't see in Australia. I'm fascinated
by how the single canoeists stay straight when they're only paddling on one
side - I guess they set their rudder to counter this.
I was not looking forward to this session at all - there was an article in
the newspaper yesterday which nominated it as the most boring set of events.
It didn't have the excitement of a close basketball match or the grace of
rhythmic gymnastics but the combination of a beautiful venue, shimmering
water, shining sun, a backdrop of our unique Blue Mountains (they look blue
from a distance due to foliage of gum trees) together with brunch lovingly
prepared by my son and a series of short but close races gave us a morning
to remember.
On Wednesday in the stadium we witnessed 200m semi-finals, decathlon events,
men's pole vault qualifying rounds, hurdles finals and women's long jump
qualifiers. Melinda (the distant cousin who doesn't know me) qualified for
the 200m finals but was totally outclassed by Marion Jones and others in the
final.
The pole vaulters were the ones who amused me that evening - especially the
poor guys who couldn't make it over the bar, but because their efforts were
so short, didn't dislodge it. I thought one poor fellow would be up there
all night - he did a great run up, planated his pole, leapt and I don't know
if he had stage fright or what but he didn't let go of his pole and seemed
to be swinging in the air for soooo long before he finally had the courage
to let go. The Aussie crowd were very boisterous as we had three vaulters in
this round - two made the finals.
Yesterday we were treated to a magnificent game in the men's singles tennis
final. Hot, hot hot was the weather and the game. Yevgeny Kafelnikov and
Tommy Haas fought for nearly four hours in one of the best tennis matches I
have ever seen (I've been to a few grand Slams) it just shows that one
doesn't need the top-ranked players to have a great Olympics. Although
Yevgeny was deservedly victorious (finer skills) Tommy deserved a Gold
Medal for his dogged determination. The women's doubles match was an
anti-climax because the winners, the Williams sisters, absolutely blitzed
their Dutch opponents 6-1, 6-0. I felt so sorry for the Dutch who just did
not have any answers to the Williams well-placed whacks.
We had magnificent seats for the tennis (in contrast to our athletics
bleachers) - so close (about six rows in) that if the stadium wouldn't have
been so noisy I could have conversed with the players from my spot. I'm
looking forward to my photos of Venus and Serena's spontaneous embraces when
they won gold. Thanks to the netters who wrote to me about Bud Collins - I
got to see him and his famous trousers when he had an on-court interview
with the Williams. I was so busy looking for Chelsea at the match (she
wasn't there) that I missed out on seeing Juan Antonio, apparently the Dutch
Royal family were there too - but I wouldn't know them.
In 30 minutes I take off again - more athletics in the Stadium (it's Friday
arvo here) - this time I'm going to use my Ventolin before staring my climb
to the Gods (How do those people run up the stairs in the Empire State
Building?).
Until next time,
Cheers from Australia,
Jill Ball
Teacher/Librarian (K-12)
MLC School Burwood NSW 2134
Australia - just a stone's throw from Olympic Park
'phone 612 9747 1266 Fax 612 9745 3254
jball@mlcsyd.nsw.edu.au
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