Day 5: B-ball

Today I was up early to cycle to the Olympic Park. It's a lot quieter early in the morning, but I still found myself grinning like a loon about the simple fact they I was on the Olympic Park yet again (prediction: this will continue!). It's also nice to be played into "work" by the band of the Royal Marines.

As this was my first morning shift, I should tell you that the Copper Box, newly-christened the 'Box That Rocks' (not by me, I assume by one of the fiendishly over-enthusiastic TV presenter/comperes) is as lively first thing as at any other time of day.

After my shift it was over to Park Live to watch the gymnastics (GB men doing unfeasibly well for the first time in very many years). And Team GB have been winning again!

My evening's entertainment was provided by a ticket to the basketball, but first the obligatory Olympic rings shot on the way into the Basketball Arena for two women's games.

Into the Basketball Arena for the first game, a thriller which ended Croatia 70 - Czech Republic 89.

In between games, the "WTF" dancers were on, breakdancing through skipping ropes. I blame the Americans.... ;-)

Game 2 was my chance to see the women's 'Dream Team', where USA beat Turkey 89 - 58.

The Basketball Arena looks really good lit up at night too, even from the inside.

Fifteen hours on the Olympic Park. Nice! And I'm back at 07.30 to do it all over again.

Five weeks to go

In five weeks' time we will be at the end of day two of the London Olympic Games. So I thought I'd have another bimble around the perimeter of the site to see how preparations are coming on.

From the bridge over the Central Line opposite Leyton tube on the High Road, the Riverbank Arena (Hockey Stadium) is looking pretty good.

The Velodrome, with the almost-finished Shard behind it, is really adding something to the London skyline (and my apologies for the inadvertent high street retail advert)

The Olympic Village, from just behind Drapers Field

The Stadium from the south side (the reopened waterside just north of the A13).

The end of Marshgate Lane, Pudding Mill Lane DLR, and the Greenway from the River Lea in the west to the A13 in the east are now closed for the duration of the games. The edge of the Marshgate industrial estate, just behind the Porsche garage on the A13, is now as close as you can get.

The Copper Box, with a couple of tractors and what (worryingly for me, as I'll be working there) looks like a sewage tank behind it?!

The Media Centre is now almost ready to start receiving and accrediting journalists.

The Hockey Centre from the side of the A12.

From New Spitalfields Market, you can now see (L-R) warm-up area, Basketball Arena, Orbit (peeking out over the top), Velodrome and Riverbank (Hockey) Arena. At the front is one of the entrances and search tent areas.

Special guest appearance: Moscow 1980 Olympic venues

On a work trip to Moscow I was booked into a hotel overlooking the a couple of the 1980 Olympic venues. Combined with some early-morning running, and a trip a 22nd floor restaurant with views over the city, I managed a few photos. Starting with the classic Russian 1980s atmospheric shot.

First of all, I should tell you that the venue known as the 'Olympic Stadium' isn't the main Olympic Stadium as you or I would think of it (ie. the one where the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, also the Athletics, takes place).Along the same lines, the 'Moscow Olympic Pool' is not the main indoor pool where the swimming and diving took place in 1980, rather a secondary open-air venue for the Water Polo. Confused? Me too!

So the Olympiyskiy Sports Complex, located about 3km north of the Kremlin, is home to the 'Olympic Stadium' and the Aquatic Centre, shown on this map.

The 'Olympic Stadium' is also known as the Olympic Indoor Arena, and was home to the Basketball and Boxing in 1980. These days it's the venue for the occasional sporting event, many gigs (sadly I just missed Muse, though Sting and German soft-rock seem more common), and also the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.

The Swimming Pool at the Olympiyskiy Sports Complex was actually the main Aquatics Centre, ie. where the swimming and diving took place in 1980.

Taking a wider view of the Swimming Pool, I think you can see the inspiration for the saddle-span roof of the London 2012 Aquatic Centre?

A few internal shots of the Swimming Pool are on this site(as an added bonus, if you use Google Translate, it translates the Russian for 'diving' into 'hopping'. Which would be interesting, if not a little dangerous, on a slippery surface next to open water).


Later in the day I was lucky enough to go to the amazing Sky Lounge restaurant at the top of the 22-floor Academy of Science on the edge of Gorky Park.

From there I had a great view of the Luzhniki Sports Complex (formerly known as the Central Lenin Stadium Area) including, amongst other things, the main actual real Olympic Stadium with a running track and sky and everything! Also the Luzhniki Palace of Sports and the understatedly-named Minor Arena.

The below sunset show shows Gorky Park (front left), Moscow University (top left) and the Luzhniki Stadium. In the foreground, on the riverbank, is the Druzhba Multipurpose Arena, which hosted the Volleyball in 1980.

The Luzhniki Stadium is now home of Spartak and Torpedo Moscow (I think it was a Torpedo match night, which is why the lights are on).

One last comment for today, utterly unrelated to this blog but very close to me... RIP Nan XX