The 2012 Paralympics are open!

Two weeks ago, we said goodbye to the 2012 Olympics in an amazing closing ceremony and the success stories were paraded across various TV shows and papers with  the main parade still to come on Sept 10th.

Now is the time to shine for the Paralympics and despite some criticism on the coverage from those who don't realise the budget gap between Channel 4 and BBC, the coverage of the ceremony in my view wasn't perfect but wasn't too bad either. The main negative was the slight lack of enthusiasm in the countries entrances when compared to the excitable commentary of BBC''s Olympics. But the setup of channels and online videos and pictures really made up for the negative.

As for the ceremony itself, it began with a speech by Professor Stephen Hawking who inspired the audience with the words ' Look up at the stars, and not down at your feet. The world did just that and saw a star studded three and a half hours which featured a flypast by Aerobility (a charity that trains disabled pilots), a choir of 430 singers and a giant Newton's apple.

Professor Hawking's appearance came ahead of the 'Big Bang' scene to act as a aid to Miranda who became the theme of the show based on the character from Shakespeare's The Tempest. He added to his earlier words with yet another inspirational line, 'Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.' 

Star of stage and screen Sir Ian McKellen added to the emotion and inspiration of the night with reference to 'the beautiful diversity of humanity'  which was clear to see in the crowds and athletes who paraded into the stadium later on. The appearance of the Queen raised the biggest roar of the crowd as she was introduced alongside Prince Edward and IPC president Sir Philip Craven

A mix of disabled and able bodied performers created a fantastic routine to the sound of Rhianna's Umbrella, a song which many believe caused the floods which ravaged the UK weeks after the songs release in 2008. This time the rain stayed away and allowed the athletes to parade from each of the 164 competing countries in dry weather with the crescendo being the entry of ParalympicsGB who appeared to a rapturous roar from the stadium.

This was followed by Lord Coe 'welcoming home' the Paralympics after its inception at Stoke Mandeville in 1948 and told the masses to be prepare to be dazzled and to be moved. This led to the official opening of the games by the Queen which set off a stunning sequence of fireworks with the conclusion of the ceremony staged by an aerial wheelchair show from six Paralympics including Dame Tanni-Grey Thompson.

Professor Hawkings final words paid tribute to the athletes, 'The Paralympic Games is about transforming our perception of the world. We are all different, there is no such thing as a standard or run-of-the-mill human being, but we share the same human spirit.The Games provide an opportunity for athletes to excel, to stretch themselves and become outstanding in their field. So let us together celebrate excellence, friendship, and respect. Good luck to you all.' The speech proved that no matter who we are we are all different and can all excel in certain fields we never thought possible.

The lighting of the Cauldron began with a stellar zip-line entry from Royal Marine Joe Townsend who is an athlete for the future and is hoping to compete at Rio 2016. Joe brought the torch down from the Orbit Tower then via David Clarke (the longest serving member of the Men's blind 5-a side football team) it was passed to the Margaret Maughan, the first Paralympic gold medallist for Great Britain,she lit the beautiful sculpture and fireworks lit up the city to start what will hopefully be a successful medal haul for Great Britain

London 2012 Closing Ceremony

After an amazing sixteen days, London 2012 closed emphatically with a three hour closing ceremony which was opened by Emeli Sande singing 'Read all about it' leading to a montage of tabloid-clad dancers and Timothy Spall reciting Tempest as Winston Churchill leading to an electric by Madness  (Our House, Parklife) followed by the Pet Shop Boys and One Direction with all accompanied by theatre group Stomp.

Ray Davies appeared next singing 'Waterloo Sunset' linking to Emeli Sande to continue 'Read
All About it'. The procession of flag bearers filed into the stadium to a rapturous fanfare with the athletes popping through the crowd as Ben Ainslie brings in the Union Flag to the sound of 'Open Arms' by Elbow.

The procession continued to the sound of Elbow singing One Day Like This' with the opening songs on repeat until the end of the procession. 303 blocks were placed in the stadium to represent the 303 events in the games which were accompanied by highlights of some of the events accompanied by Kate Bush.

The final medal ceremony of the games and a long tradition, the Men's Marathon won by Steven Kiprotich (Ugn) with Abel Kirui (Ken) taking the silver and Wilson Kiprotich (Ken) the bronze.

The Medallists depart the podium and 'Imagine' is sung by a choir with a video of the legendary John Lennon singing, really spine-tingling to see and a great way to open the 'Symphony of British Music'

The seats transform into a piano as 'Freedom' is performed by George Michael, nice to see him back  and he ends with 'White Light' as Kaiser Chiefs enter on UK themed motorbikes and singing 'Pinball Wizard' followed by a tribute to British Fashion to the tune of David Bowie's 'Fashion'

Annie Lennox sings 'Little Bird' in what looks like a replica of  Viking Longboat and leaves the stage to rapturous applause while Ed Sheeran appears centre stage singing Pink Floyd's hit 'Wish You Were Here'

Russell Brand as Willy Wonka enters the stage and sings 'Pure Imagination followed by 'I Am The Walrus'. Fatboy Slim's 'Right Here Right Now' plays as the man himself (Norman Cook appears out of a bubble in the Wonkamobile and begins a DJ session of 'Rockerfeller Skank'.

 The bubble seems to have formed into an Octopus and as the music slows down Jessie J appears to sing 'Price Tag' in a 'nude' body stocking and joined by Tinie Tempah who sings 'Written In The Stars' a song which always reminds me of Super Sunday on Sky Sports.

Taio Cruz enters with 'Dynamite and the trio of Jessie, Tinie and Taio sing the Bee Gees classic 'You Should Be Dancing' Surely all male eyes are drawn to Jessie J, the eye candy of the show so far.

Five cabs enter the stadium and out pop the Spice Girls looking as amazing as they sing 'Spice Up Your Life' and really get the crowd going then out pops Liam Gallagher singing the classic 'Wonderwall' accompanied by Beady Eye. The classics keep on coming with Electric Light Orchestra (ELO)'s Mr Blue Sky pumping through the stadium while a cyclist equipped with a propeller rides around the stage and flies off.

A large cannon is lit and 3,2,1, off goes the humans cannonball, or not whoops a misfire as Eric Idle appears to be the poor fella and sings possibly one of the best classics ' Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life' with whimsical whistling and winged nuns. The nuns depart and Legions appear fronted by a Bollywood style dancing crew to send Eric Idle into confusion and to then break into the Robot and get a face full of dust to then resume' Bright Side Of Life' do do do do do do do do which ends with a human cannonball across the stadium safely in the net.

Muse on the piano with 'Survival before bursting into an electric guitar solo which lights up the crowd and a Freddy Mercury video screen appears with him encouraging the crowd making them ready for the legend that is Brian May making amazing sound on the guitar to lead into 'Brighton Rock' and 'We Will Rock You' as Roger Taylor joins to form the Queen duo and the stunning Jessie J reappears to sing and the crowd do their bit to match the superb sound of her voice as she shows why she was chosen to end the 'Symphony of Music'

The concert ends and the serious stuff begins as the Greek anthem plays and the London Welsh Male Voice choir perform the Olympic anthem. The dignitaries appear on stage with Jacques Rogge,Boris Johnson (Mayor of London) and Eduardo Paes (Mayor of Rio) to exchange the Olympic flag and declare Rio the next host city and the Brazilian anthem plays, not one many will know unless you are an F1 fan, Ayrton Senna made it famous for me of course and just like that Brazil becomes the first South American host of the Olympic Games and presents its carnival for the world which to be fair was mediocre.

Jacques Rogge and Lord Coe both give inspiring speeches and hopefully London 2012 will 'inspire a generation'. The Cauldron splits as Take That sing 'Rule The World' and the phoenix above the flame is joined by Darcey Bussell who flies down in her own phoenix to join 200 fellow ballerina and produce a toe-tapping routine as the Olympic flame begins to be extinguished and after three hours finally its THE WHO!

Best way to finish what has been an amazng two weeks with 'Baba O’Riley', 'See Me, Feel Me' 'Listening to You' and the very apt 'My Generation' as the stadium erupts and the fireworks set off.

Paralympics on the 29th next and hopefully it will come close to the history made in these last two weeks.

London 2012 Day 16 Eventing

Athletically, Lee Merrien finishes 30th in the men's marathon in a time of two hours 17 minutes with Scott Overall is 61st in 2:22:37.

 The success in the Excel continued with gold and silver for GB,Anthony Joshua sealed the gold medal in the men's super-heavyweight (+91kg) division after finishing on 18 points with defending Olympic champion Roberto Cammarelle (Ita) and Joshua was awarded the win via countback with compatriot Fred Evans securing silver after losing 17-9 to Serik Sapiyev of Kazakhstan in the men's welterweight (69kg) final.

The events closed with the Modern Pentathlon won by Laura Asadauskaite (Ltu) with GB's Sam Murray taking the silver to end the games with GB on 65 medals and the best haul since the historic 1908 games.

The final medal table looks like this...

London 2012 Day 15

Gold for Great Britain in the Canoe Sprint for Ed McKeever in the K1 200m ahead Spain's Saul Craviotto Rivero and Canada's Mark de Jonge while fellow Brit Jess Walker finishes seventh in the Women's K1 200m with Lisa Carrington of New Zealand.taking the gold.

Liam Heath and Jon Schofield take bronze in the men's kayak pairs sprint, behind winners Russia and silver medallists Belarus and Tom Daley qualifies for the final of the Men's 10m Platform diving by finishing in fourth in the semi finals with a score of 521.10.

Mo Farah becomes a double Olympic champion with gold in the 5000m after an amazing run to become only the seventh man to complete a 5000/10000m double at the same games by winning ahead of Gebremeskel of Ethiopia who took silver.

An blitzing run by Jamaica secured a 6th gold for Usain Bolt and a new WR in the 4x100m relay ahead of USA and Trinidad and Tobago who took silver and bronze.

Gold for Great Britain as Luke Campbell seals GB's 28th gold of the games in the Men's Bantamweight Boxing by beating Ireland's John Joe Nevin by 14-11.

Tom Daley secures a well deserved bronze in the Men's 10m Platform diving behind China's Qui Bo who took silver and American David Boudia who took gold.

Penultimate look at the medal table....

 

London 2012 Day 14 Part 2

In the Olympic stadium, Shana Cox, Lee McConnell, Eilidh Weir and Christine Ohuruogu finish third in the heats of the 4x400m to qualify for the final while Christian Malcolm, Dwain Chambers, Danny Talbot and Adam Gemili were disqualified from the men's 4x100m heats after a baton handover between Talbot and Gemili is seen to be outside the designated area.

Conrad Williams, Jack Green, Dai Greene and Martyn Rooney finished fourth in the final of the men's 4x400m and in the Women's 5000 final, Jo Pavey and Julia Bleasdale finished seventh and eighth.

Lisa Dobriskey and Laura Weightman finished 10th and 11th in the Women's 1500m final and Sophie Hichon finished 12th in the Women's Hammer final.

Medals are getting closer in the Men's Boxing as Anthony Joshua, Luke Campbell, Fred Evans all make the finals of their respective weights but Anthony Ogogo loses his semi but seals a bronze medal.

Liam Heath and Jon Schofield are through to the final of the men's kayak (K2) 200m after a second-placed finish in the semi finals and in the BMX, Shanaze Reade finishes sixth in her final and Liam Phillips finished last in the Men's final.

Tom Daley sneaked into the semis of the Men's 10m Platform diving by qualifying 15th out of 16th while Pete Waterfield finished 23rd.

Bronze in the Women's Hockey as GB beat New Zealand 3-1 with goals from Alex Danson, Crista Cullen and Sarah Thomas and another bronze came courtesy of Lutalo Muhammad by winning in the Taekwando repechage.

After Patience and Bithells Silver this morning in the Men's 470 class their female compatriots equalled them with another silver for GB making the medal table just that bit better.  

London 2012 Day 14 Part 1

In the Canoe Sprint, Ed McKeever sets a new OR of 35.087 in the heats and also performs well in the semis to reach the final of the K1 and has a great chance of a medal.

Sarah Stevenson loses her opener in the 67kg Taekwando and has to go in the repecharge with bronze her best hope.

Silver for Great Britain as Stuart Bithell and Luke Patience seal second in the 470 class Sailing narrowly missing out on gold which went to Australia.

Jess Walker reaches the final of the K1 200m by finishing second in her semi behind Russia's Lobova.

London 2012 Day 13 Part 2

Gold for Great Britain and history in the making as Nicola Adams wins the inaugural Olympic gold in Women's Boxing by beating Red Cancan of China by 16-7.

Andrew Osagie finishes eighth in the men's 800m final while Liam Phillips qualifies for the BMX semis by finishing second in each of the three qualifying heats.

Gold for GB as Charlotte Dujardin wins in the Individual Dressage to seal her second Olympic gold of the games with fellow Brit Laura Bechtolshiemer sealing the bronze and Carl Hester in fifth.

The chance of a medal in the Men's Hockey is only bronze after losing 9-2 to Netherlands in the Semi and will play Australia for the bronze medal while Keri Ann Payne misses out on a medal in the 10km Swim by finishing fourth.

Historic gold for Great Britain as Jade Jones wins GB's first ever Taekwando gold after an amazing day taking her from the prelims to the final which she won 6-4 against China's Yuzhuo Hou but sadly it was not a double success as Martin Stamper lost in the bronze medal match of the Men's 56kg to Afghanistan's Rohullah Nikpai.

The medal table is looking better every day.....