I spent the whole day watching Heather in the modern pentathlon yesterday – now there is a tough sport to compete in and to watch.
The event started at 8.30am in the morning and finished at 8.15pm and took place at three different venues. The shooting and fencing were staged at one venue, the swimming at another, with show jumping and the running at a third.
There is an average of one-and-a-half hours between each one event, which does not leave a lot of time to get to different venues and eat.
But it was worth the effort to see Heather claim a medal in an exciting end to a thrilling competition.
Heather even managed to attract the support of HRH Princess Anne and the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Mr Brown turned up to see some of the fencing and his arrival caused a bit of a commotion in China ’s National Fencing Hall.
More eyes were on him at one point than on the fencing.
The Chinese certainly seemed exciting by his arrival, although he was not mobbed as much as Tonia had been the Aquatic Centre the day before, but, there again, he did have a large security force with him!
The run at the end of the pentathlon was thrilling to watch and I love the fact that athletes’ points after the previous four events are converted into time advantages on the run. So the athlete with the most points after four events starts first and then all the rest go off at varying times afterwards.
It means that unlike the heptathlon and decathlon you know exactly who has won the medals at the end.
The most entertaining event to watch of the pentathlon is the show jumping, which is the most unpredictable of the five disciplines.
This is because the athletes don’t know the horse they are going to get. They have a draw for the horses.
Now they are not suppose to be any nags in the Olympics, but most of the athletes were worried they might get one.
The horse Heather was drawn was described as being lazy, but she showed what a good horse women she is by riding an impressive round.
The next competitor to ride the same horse did not have quite as good a ride and there were some comical moments with athletes trying to handle unknown horses.
One horse refused three times to go over a jump, but the rider eventually got him to do it, but when they finished the race the horse got its own back by throwing the competitors off into a giant plant pot.
Today sees Tom Daley will bring to an end the involvement of our local athletes in the Olympic Games when he competes in the men’s platform diving event.
He was our first athlete to compete, when he took part in the synchro, and he will be the last.
Hopefully, tomorrow, after everything is out of the way, I will finally get to visit the Great Wall and maybe the markets.
I had a quick look in one of the main tourist markets the other day and it was quite frightening, but exciting at the same time.
It was probably as well I didn’t have much money on me or time to really look around.
You just have to walk near a stall and you have assistants saying ‘lady you want nice t-shirt?’, ‘lady, you want nice chopsticks?’, ‘lady you want designer watch?’ and so on - I am not making it up honest!
Nothing is priced up and they ask you what you want to pay, which is a start of a long, negotiating process, which involves the seller and prospective buyer passes a giant calculator between them until they can agree on a figure.
I just looked the other day but I might try my hand at bartering tomorrow.
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