Paralympic Athletics

Superb, what else can I say. The stadium rocks, the 80,000 spectators rock, and the athletes are simply unbelievable. The guys doing the high jump with one leg, blind runners keeping perfect stride with their guide runners, wheelchairs rocketing down the straight. The whole thing was amazing. Several contenders for champagne moment - the roar after Mickey Bushell won his 100m final, the cheers for Tanni Grey-Thompson doing nothing more than handing over flowers, George Osborne getting booed, and then the Argentine 5000m T12 runner Jose Luis Santero getting lapped by almost everyone - twice - and then having the whole crowd behind him on his final - and solo - 800m. A wonderful evening of sport, just to be in the stadium was a privilege. The family were in there all day, and I joined them for a second session in the evening, an excellent way to destress following more fun and frolics at work. Regular readers may have noticed that I have been [even] more grouchy than normal of late. Perhaps it's the lack of Tree Pipits, perhaps it's that I've been back at work for almost a year? Who knows, and who cares? Last night was brilliant!

We did!

Birgit Kober threw 7m further than anyone else, and set a new Paralympic record pretty much every time she wasn't red-flagged!

Mickey Bushell, the T53 100m Champion

Jose Luis Santero at the back, and the amazing Moroccan, El Amin Chentouf at the front. His glasses were 8x32s I think.