Anniversary Games - Olympic Stadium

So after several miles of site seeing around London in blazing summer heat we finally arrived at our destination - The Olympic Stadium. As most people know we were fortunate enough to take the boys to see some Olympic Kayaking at Lee Valley last year, but was unfortunate enough to not get tickets for the athletics in the Olympic Stadium. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to not only find out that there was going to be an Anniversary Games at the Olympic Stadium 1 year later, but that I was fortunate enough to get tickets for all four of us to go. Pretty lucky really when you consider that 80,000 tickets sold out in about 45 mins!

 

As we approach the stadium the crowds were already in full flow.

 

The Olympic Tower still stands but it didn't look like i was open to the public.

Little B tucking in to his burger and chips in front of the Olympic Tower.

Joshua showing us his Sainsbury "Go GB!" sign which he was given to hold up and support our athletes.

When we arrived the stadium was fairly empty, but within about 30 mins there was hardly an empty seat and the atmosphere was buzzing.

Waiting patiently for the athletics to being.

The inflatable Sainsbury balloon circling around the 400m race track.

British Athletics here we go.

 



Joshua lays down waiting for the games to start and Brandon cools off by stripping off his top.

The athletics started a little bit slowly with the discus down our end of the  stadium and the women's pole vault at the other end. The two boys loved learning about the sports and really got into the spirit of things when it came to cheering on team GB. They were waving their banners, shouting, pumping the air with their fists etc.etc. As these two events came to a close the real track action started with the 4 x 100m women's, men's 200m, 400m, 800m and 1500m races. The discus event used little radio controlled trucks to recover the discus's back to the athletes, at one point two of them even had a drag race down the 100m track!

The discus competition in full swing.

Of course the main event of the evening was the 100m men's final and despite this not being on until around 9:50 there was absolutely no way I was leaving early to miss the crowds and get the boys home early'ish. How often will we get the chance to see the fastest man on the planet, Usain Bolt, racing in the 100m in the Olympic Stadium? However before the events started Usain Bolt was introduced to an eruptuous crowd as he did a lap of honour on the back of some sort of weird aeroplane cockpit type of car. Needless to say both Joshua and Brandon now know how to do the Usain Bolt celebration.

The fastest man on the planet working the crowd before his big race.

Fire erupting from the back of the aeroplane car.

 

A stunning view of the men's 100m B race earlier in the evening.

A quick ice cream break in between events and I couldn't resist another picture of the Tower.

As the sun started to set over the stadium the pyramid lights lit up the track and field.

When it is pitch black the stadium looks amazing all lit up.

It is incredible that the stadium looks like daylight despite being pitch black outside.

Women's hurdles in action.

 

Then the moment we had all been waiting for - the start of the 100m final. Usain Bolt limbering up in lane 5. Camera flashes going off everywhere.

Despite a poor start, Usain's typical last 30m was phenomenal as he cruised to a win in 9.85 seconds.

Usain starts his lap of honour and milks the adorning crowd.

 

Once the 100m race was over it was pretty much a stampede as 80,000 people exited the stadium all heading for Stratford train station! I knew this was going to be bad and to make things worse Joshua slightly hurt his ankle coming down the stairs, so he took the buggy and I ended up carrying Brandon on a very hot sticky night in a jam packed crowd all pushing their way to try and get home. In the end it took us nearly 1 hour to get from the stadium to the train station. From there it was home sailing and we were back in doors by about 11:30pm. The Anniversary Games were incredible and it was so nice to see the boys having so much fun and cheering on Team GB. I am so proud to have been able to give them such a great opportunity in life.