Saina on Song!

What a match! What a lady! What a day! Saina Nehwal did herself and India proud in a packed Wembley Arena this afternoon with a clinically professional performance to defeat that wily old coyote from Denmark, Tine Baum, 21-15; 22-20, and make the semi-finals of the Olympics badminton women's singles.



Supple Saina - in action in the quarters earlier today. She's lost weight, 5 kgs, in preparation for the Olympics.



Us Indians, and there were more than a fair sprinkling present, went crazy. The chants and screams were several and varied. "Jeete ga bhai, jeete ga, India jeete ga", "Let's go Saina, let's go", "Come on Saina", "Come on India", "Chak de", "Chalo Saina, chalo", "Steady Saina, steady", all pierced the air with clock work regularity through our badminton queen's match. The atmosphere was India charged with many Indian flags proudly being waived. At times Saina must have felt she was playing in Lucknow, not London.



Chic Saina - the pretty lady makes a fashion statement, a single piece dress! The endorsements will pour in.



The guru and the pupil. Gopichand, the coach, coaches. Saina, the player, gets coached.



The first game saw Saina take control from the beginning. She kept a healthy lead through the game and ran out a facile winner in the first. The second saw tables turned. Tine Baum started well and nearly ended the game well too. Baum had three game points at 20-17 but it was one of those Saina end of game fight backs for which she has now got a growing reputation for. Five points Saina pulls off in a row to take the second game too and the match.



She stoops to conquer. Approaching victory.....



Pandemonium breaks out amongst us Indians present. I move with my tricolour a few steps down to the edge of the court and 'am soon followed by three other screaming flag totting Indians. We set up an incessant chant of "Saina, Saina". She looks up from packing her racquets into her bag and says a shy, polite "Thank you". A super badminton player. A fine lady.



Yours truly in truly celebratory mood right after Saina's match and next to the court she played on. "Come on India!" Thanks for the many message from India about me appearing on TV with the beloved tricolour. Jai Hind!



Lots of photographs later (by now most of the Indians in the crowd had gathered where I was sitting next to the court) us Indian supporters go out of the stadium together chanting "India, India", waving our flags furiously. Lots more photographs and lots more new Indian friends made in the gathering outside. Olympic victory is the best medicine to bring Indians together in any part of the world. And badminton in the Country seems to be becoming ever so popular. Thanks a ton Saina.



The badminton queen walking back from the stadium to the Ibis hotel next door on Wembley Way soon after I meet and congratulate her. Notice she herself is carrying her kit bag and saunters on the high streets of London totally unrecognised.



Wembley Wonder

Today was a double header. First the India - New Zealand hockey match at the Olympic Park and then a rush across town to the football at one of the world's most famous stadia, Wembley Stadium.

One went with a spring in one's step to the Riverbank Arena to watch our hockey men. After the memorable fight back in the second half of the previous match against Holland, us India supporters were encouraged to expect India would put it across the higher ranked Kiwis. All went according to the Indian script as we scored in the very second minute. 1-0 to India and the promise of more to come. Alas, it was not to be. In a disappointing performance thereafter the spoils of the day were taken by the Kiwis with a 3-1 score line.

I make a quick dash immediately after the match from the Olympic Park deep in East London to the Liverpool Street station where Rati meets me. After a hug and another, "Happy birthday Rati", we set off by Tube to the outer reaches of North West London and the Wembley Stadium. Miraculously we are in our seats for the start of the South Korea - Gabon football game. And what seats they prove to be! What a stadium we are in! Without doubt the best stadium I've ever been in. The spectator attendance at the match, in true Wembley Stadium tradition, is flashed on the giant screens during the second half of the game. 76,927 is the spectator count for the game.

The fabulous Wembley Stadium. The best stadium I have ever been in.

How the 76,927 were controlled post the match and found themselves home provides another example of how well organised these Games have been. Wave after wave of humanity find themselves lead into the Wembley Park tube station without any hiccups. Event after event the stadia have matched the superb way the crowds have been managed.

Post match most of the 76,927 spectators are lead into Wembley Park tube station - orderly and organised.

Although our World number 1 archer, Deepika Kumari, fares miserably in her first round today, our badminton singles flags are flying high. P. Kashyap has probably surprised himself by reaching the quarter finals whilst Saina Nehwal surprised no one by doing likewise.

I am eagerly looking forward to being at the Wembley Arena to cheer Saina along.....

Artistic Americans

Day 4 of the Olympics and it's time for the fourth event of the Games - artistic gymnastics. Rati and I were off to the Women's Gymnastics Team finals, the flag ship event of the gymnastics programme.

True to previous form London's transport holds firm and its a doddle to get to the stadium in East London, the North Greenwich Arena. Whilst East London is buzzing with the activity of the Olympics, it's famous neighbour, London's West End (Central London) is suffering from a lack of visitors to its shops, bars, cinemas, restaurants and hotels. People have been warned to keep off Central London, others simply want to avoid the crowds of the Games and some others are busy working from home.  Whatever the reason commerce in the West End is feeling the pinch. Hotel rates are being lowered making it attractive for anyone who might want a London holiday for less than what it should be.

The crowds at the gynastics were there alright. How well they were managed through security and the ticket gates is an object lesson in project management.

The crowds thronged at the gymnastics. Again, the logistics and crowd management were tops.

The stadium itself is the best indoor arena I've been to. The seats are like those in an expensive cinema, the views terrific, the sound system superb and ambiance fantastic. USA sweeps the day and China stuns all of us by not winning a medal. The women (most of them are girls) stunned with their artistry and skills. A day of sport not to be forgotten in a hurry.

The fabulous North Greenwich arena. Little wonder the gymnasts performed so marvelously.

London's Olympic Park - wow!

Londoners were both warned and cajoled into using alternate means of transport. Keep away from the Underground was the diktat. Get staff to work from home was a plea to corporate London. The transport systems will break down said the crystal ball gazers. Cannot take the strain of an additional million visitors the pundits assured. We've heard of the British understatements. Now we've just experienced this very nation's gross overstatement. The journey by tube to the Olympic Park was easy and efficient. The crowds were superbly managed and the rigorous security check smooth as silk. No transport hassles whatsoever. Too much ado about nothing! 

The towering Arcelor Mittal Orbit at the Olympic Park with the Main Stadium in the background. Mittal's steel, no less!

Today Rati and I for the first time went to the Olympic Park. a waste land in East London now transformed into a fabulous, sprawling sports enclave housing the stadia for athletics, cycling, swimming, water polo, BMX biking, hockey and basketball. India played the mighty Netherlands at hockey on artificial turf which is blue in colour and a ball which is yellow. 

The blue and yellow ensure the day's hockey is of a different colour. India too is in different colours in the first half - off-colour! At 2-0 down at half time neither were the Indians playing nor those watching amused. 



While the blue artificial turf needs watering during the half time break, the Indian players need much more than inspiration.



To our delight the Indians change colour in the second half. They play out of their skins and thrill the packed stadium with fast flowing and attacking hockey to swiftly restore parity at 2-2. Plenty of occasions for Rati and me to proudly wave our India flags and for me to keep screaming, "Come on India". 



India lay siege on the Dutch goal in the second half. This is a rare Holland attack. The packed stadium is enthralled by some dazzling Indian hockey.



Although a penalty corner Dutch goal spoils the party at the end for us, nobody present at the Riverbank Arena is left in any doubt about our fighting spirit and skills. New Zealand, whom we next play on 1 August, must not be looking forward to their India game. Let our opponents beware.

Rati and I walk across to the swimming stadium just before the finals are due to begin. We don't have tickets but hang around near the ticket turnstiles in the forlorn hope some heavenly soul would appear with two spare tickets for us to buy. Alas, no such soul appears. We conclude it's ordained that swimming isn't ours to watch, at least at these Olympics!

We leave the Riverbank Arena and Olympic Park with our Indian hearts beating strongly and proudly. It's been a good day for India. Whilst watching India play superb hockey in the second half news filters in of our Gagan Narang rifling himself to India's first medal of the Games, all our tennis boys winning, all our badminton girls winning (hats off to Gutta and Ponappa in the doubles) and the boxers chipping in. 

 

Archery Lords It Over At Lords

Wow! Archery at Lords. That too right on the green, green grass of the hallowed cricket ground. Right in front of the even more hallowed Pavilion! Seeing is believing. And Rati and I actually saw it. We watched the quarter, semi and finals of the women's team archery. Fascinating skills across a target 70 metres away; that's a distance of over 200 ft from where the archer stands and the bulls eye.

A 15 minute walk from home normally takes us to the Lords Cricket Ground in London's St. Johns Wood. Today it took us a lot longer. Rain. Not the ideal conditions you will agree for an outdoor event. We seat ourselves down in our strategically positioned seats with terrific views of the field of play and the Lords pavilion. The sun is now shining brightly. Russia pull one out of the hat to beat Chinese Taipei and reach the semis. India is knocked out in the previous round by eminently beatable Denmark.



Right in front of the Lords pavilion, a different occurance on the hallowed cricket turf - Olympic archery!



The sun disappears. Meanwhile major domos Korea and China make the final. The final begins in pouring rain. Rati and I are half drenched but fully excited as the archers seem so steeped in the power of the moment that they do not seem to feel even a rain drop. Amazing sport this. Not a second is wasted during, in between and after matches. Everything is timed to the second and precision is the only thing which matters.

The finals in the rain.....typical London weather.

The final reaches its climax, the rain vamooses, the sun emerges, a rainbow forms way above the Mound Stand and South Korea pulls off a two point victory to record an amazing 7 Olympic gold medals in a row feat. Perhaps one day India will rid the Koreans of the archery Olympics gold. Perhaps.

We leave Lords in the smug thought that the greatest sports event on Earth has broken the cricket bastion right where it matters most - Lords. For a few days more the archers will be the Lords here. Then the English and South African cricketers will regain their paradise for the third test of the on going series. And I'll be back at Lords to watch.....cricket! 

Smooth As Silk

It was our first first-hand experience of the Olympics. Badminton it was to be which breaks my Olympic virginity. The stadium was packed, the crowds were bustling and busy, and the support staff right from the Tube (London's Metro) station to inside the playing arena helpful and pleasant. London has worked out of its skin to deliver "the friendly Games".

A 10 minute walk from the station goes right onto a huge ramp wrapped around part of football's most famous Wembley Stadium. Then we descend myriad steps to the badminton arena, Wembley Arena. My Daughter, Rati, and Niece, Divya, are chattering excitedly as we walk along but I am lost in my thoughts.....Zubin Dubash, may his tribe increase, and I are walking excitedly along the same path to reach the same Wembley Arena, except that it is 23 March 1980 and we are racing to watch Prakash Padukone play the singles final of the All England Badminton Championship against Indonesia's feared hitter, Liam Siew King. Prakash annihilates King to become King. Zubin and I shout ourselves hoarse and celebrate with Prakash, the All England trophy, champagne and all. But that was 32 years ago.....

Us spectators are lead in a most orderly, so very British way, to the security kiosks. So much has been said, and even more written, about the traffic chaos London would get into, the security ringers us spectators would be put through and the consequent delays before we sat oursevles down in our seats. None of this. So many X-ray machines, so many personnel to so nicely request you to take your belt off, keep the keys in the tray, and usher one through the process. International airport security thoroughness we were warned. Expect delays we were assured. None of this. Smooth As Silk we were through the whole caboodle. A mere 15 minutes it took us. If only the immigration and security procedures in airports around the world could learn from London 2012! If only.

The logistics and security checks at the Wembley Arena are superbly organised...Smooth As Silk!

Wembley Arena is a picture. Once inside the Arena our seats are easy to reach, comfortable and afford terrific views from our bay S7 vantage point. Three hours and more of top class badminton, perhaps the best English fish and chips I have ever eaten (thanks Rati for breaking off from the viewing to get it for me), and an increasingly warm stadium later it was time to go.

Badminton breaks my Olympic virginity. Inside Wembley Arena.....

Day one of the Games is done and dusted. 15 more days of Olympic action and 18 more events for us to go to. It's over to the Lords Cricket Ground tomorrow..... for archery! 

Business As Abnormal

Yesterday begins at the Heathrow Airport with a live piano recital of the evergreen Olympics theme from the movie, The Chariots of Fire. The piano playing lady is pretty and well dressed, and seems to belong better at the Royal Albert Hall. London is trying her very best!

The promised Games Lanes update - motorists ranted and they raved during yesterday morning's commute but traffic hell was far from breaking loose. It's difficult on the roads but impossible by no means. In a manner of speaking, it is Business As Abnormal.

Next to the Tower of London - the Queen's jewel's seem to be safe as also the two vehicles using the Olympics Lanes. The one traffic lane, extreme right, for non-Olympics mortals does have a tail back! 

In what turned out to be an Indian summer's day - 30 deg C and hot sunshine - I leave late evening, camera bag in tow, for the Tower Bridge. The resolve is to see the huge Olympic rings suspended across the top of the bridge. But see the rings I certainly don't when I get right down below the tower Bridge. The bridge itself looks magnificant but the rings are tucked into the roof, almost too shy to show themselves.

"Whatz 'appened to them rings?" asks one old Cockney lady of the other. "They're savin' 'em, Luv," is the sardonic response of her equally old buddy. Saving them or not this did not help any. I waited and I waited even asking a professional Olympics photographer from Tokyo for any lowering the rings information salvation. He was as non-plussed as I was.

Patience is a virtue. I waited some more. And more. More than 3 hours and still "them rings" are being "saved". At 9 pm I get ousted from the grounds of the Tower of London which offer great viewing positions of the Tower Bridge. Leave the grounds but continue to hang on further down the river bank, more in hope than expectation. 

"It's being lowered," I shout out. It's well past 9 pm and even the mighty come down. The wait is more than worth it. Darkness had set in and the Tower, rings and all in full view, look splendid. A day well spent  after all!

Last night - the Tower Bridge in it's Olympic splendor.