Athletics & Field Hockey

I got a free ticket to see Athletics in the Bird's Nest this morning as one of my friend's friends did not feel like going. Supposedly it the event was "shotput," but it was actually 3 events, and none of them were shotput:


Women's Javelin Throw
Women's Long Jump
Women's 200M


A view of the Bird's Nest during the day:




And the Water Cube:

A few shots inside the stadium:

Women's 200M Preliminaries:

The Olympic Flame still going strong:

Unfortunately, Athletics was also a difficult event to follow, as all three events tend to go on simultaneously. The long jump in particular was difficult due to the fact differences were measured in centimeters, and the stadium is huge.


One of the surprises for me was seeing the woman from Bahrain, Ruqaya Al Ghasara, win her heat. Unlike the other competitors, she was completely wrapped from head to toe in a Hijood as per the traditions of her culture, and when the race started, she was not the fleetest of the group. Nonetheless, by the end, she had jumped out ahead to the astonishment (and perhaps even delight) of everyone in the stadium.

Ruqaya Al Ghasara:


Results: Too many to track



At night, I went to see Field Hockey with another friend of a friend. This was one of those events for which I was able to get very cheap tickets (about $11 USD), and since I had never seen it, I was quite curious as to how the sport is played. My impression was that resembled soccer more than ice hockey.

Field Hockey is located up in the northeast corner of the Olympic Green, near Archery and Tennis. We had bad seats initially:


But soon afterwards we switched to much better ones after eluding one of the volunteers guarding the doors of a different section:


One interesting practice is this formation of the defense stuffing the goal with players before penalties:

While the offense looks ready to pounce:

Fans cheering for China:

China got out to an early lead but would never score again as the Belgiums took control after the withstanding the crowd-driven opening fervor. In the other match, Spain outlasted South Korea, who scored in the final minutes but was unable to equalize in the final minute.

Jerry at the Field Hockey Stadium:

Results:
Spain def. South Korea, 2-1
Belgium def. China, 3-1