Reporter

High fives, gold medals and questionable sustainability

23 August 2012

Lorenz Gruber (Electronic and Electrical Engineering) reminisces about being an Olympic handball volunteer for three weeks.

“Now it is over, what a fantastic event it was! It is sad that it is over but on the other hand I could not have continued my style of living for a lot longer than those three weeks. I am not saying that I worked extremely hard but it was the times of the shifts and the tedious traveling that were extremely exhausting. To be more precise 95 per cent of my work time was sitting in a corner and checking people’s accreditations. I know this sounds really boring if we were not sitting on the field of play and could watch all the handball games from very close:) That’s why I would not have changed my job with anyone’s. I will certainly never see as many handball games in such a short period of time ever again (unless the Olympics Spirit gets me again and I apply for Rio – but who knows what will happen in those four years).

I think I saw roughly 30 games of handball in total. Having talked about my work in the previous blog posts I will now describe my impressions of fans and teams which I got over those three weeks, as you do get to know them a little.

The most astonishing thing was both Team GB handball teams. I have never and doubt I ever will see two teams lose so badly and still receive so much support from the spectators. I am not trying to make fun of British handball. Everybody was expecting them to lose as it is just not very popular in the UK. It is rather the amount of support despite them losing by 10 or 20 goals that truly impressed me. I can’t imagine what the scores would have been like without this massive home support:) Let’s hope the slogan of the Olympics holds true and a new generation of British handballers will be inspired.

Training methods

Another thing that struck me over the three weeks were the very different training methods of the teams. I always enjoyed watching the female Norway team train as they had such a positive spirit. They were constantly motivating themselves by giving each other high fives and smiling at each other in contrast the Russian female team were subjected to a coach who constantly shouted at his players. It is good to know that the former training method got Norway the gold medal in the end.

It was impressive to watch the female South Korean team as despite lacking in the inches and pounds of some of the other teams they were extremely quick and determined and managed to get into the semi-final and only lose in extra time.

I have to mention here that the Hungarian coach was the only one who thoroughly thanked us for what we were doing. As it turned out he had been a coach in the German handball league and so I got to know him a little better (as I am German) and I became a little Hungary supporter! In the end Hungary managed to come fourth which surpassed most people’s expectations.

From Geography lessons I envisaged Hungary as a small country with a relatively small population. This definitely did not hold true in the London 2012 handball arena. There were a huge number of passionate Hungarian handball fanatics Their songs even appeared in my dreams one night which did not happen with any other team. Once though I wished I had taken earplugs as I was sitting in front of three elderly Hungarian ladies and they managed to really upset my ears.

Last but not least there was the male French team who were favourites from the beginning and stayed this throughout the entire tournament, securing their second consecutive gold medal. Watching “Les Bleus” was always worth it as players and fans (not including GBs home advantage) were just the best. Having lived for a year in France this is clearly a biased opinion.

The downfalls of the Games

Not everything was brilliant: I think the Games were a true success for the country and the athletes although there were a couple of things that did upset me throughout my time at the park. I have not talked to a single person that said the food given out during the shifts was enough for them. In fact we only got one food voucher for an eight hour shift. The food was of high quality but the staff kept refusing to add a little extra which was obviously not their fault but the management’s. This is even more sad when you watched the people in the Olympics family lounges that are attached to each stadium having the nicest ‘all you can eat’ buffets after each game. My worst experience was on a morning in the staff canteen when I saw they were closing down. When I asked they told me they would have to throw away the food that was left over (which was a lot). Then I asked whether I could have some as they were throwing it away and the answer was “NO”. Since that moment I am strongly in doubt whether this is what they call ‘Sustainable Games’.

I appreciated the effort they put into handing out healthy food to the volunteers. With our food voucher we were entitled to one drink as well. And yet every time I stood in front of the fridge I became upset again. Thanks to Coca Cola we could choose between water, Coke, Fanta, Sprite and their zero sugar versions. I do not mind drinking a fizzy drink every now and then but most of the time I took the water. In the Olympic Family lounge next door they had healthy 100 per cent orange and apple juice….

On the last day of the Games I wandered round the souvenir shops as it was they only day to get into them without getting squeezed and I found the perfect souvenir to remind me of the Olympics. It was a nice frame with a picture of the Opening Ceremony on the left, a metal board with the Olympic slogan written on it, and a special area into which we could put our volunteer accreditation. When I looked at the price I had to hold on to something not to get blown away! They were charging £130 for this. As this was clearly not targeted for tourists but for volunteers they are even trying to make money from people that worked for free for three weeks instead of giving it to us as an appreciation for our work. We did get something from LOCOG: five Olympic pins and a relay baton. From all the multi-billion dollar sponsors of the Olympics however we got nothing…

And then of course there was the empty seat issue but I am going to skip this one as it has been discussed thoroughly.

These were my bad experiences, concentrated.

In conclusion my three weeks of volunteering were pretty stressful but even more fun. And it hasn’t put me off – which is why I have put my name down to do some more shifts during the Paralympics!

Tags: London 2012, Olympic handball blog
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Nine seconds of brilliance – watching Bolt!

13 August 2012

I think if you were to ask the country “Which Olympic event would you most like to see at London 2012?” I think the resounding answer would be “Men’s 100m Final”. This is perhaps proven by the fact that over two million people applied for tickets for the Athletics evening session that included the event. Former sabbatical officer Jason Parmar (Chemistry), was lucky enough to be one of the 80,000 people in the stadium and reports on taking his mum to Super Saturday:

“The 100m Men’s Final is internationally recognised as the event that defines the “fastest man/person in the world” and let me tell you, the event does not disappoint! The session is actually over three hours of different athletic disciplines and medal ceremonies so there are plenty of incredible events to watch and enjoy before the epic finale to discover the fastest man in the world.

Being by far my most expensive and prized ticket, of which I had two at category B, costing £295 each, I had to choose who to take with me wisely. So I chose the most obvious option – take my mum and give her the ticket as her birthday present.

Having been to a lot of events before this I knew what to expect, but I really wanted to make the most of this day and do as much as we could. The session started at 18:45, but I met my mum at 14.00 sharp at King’s Cross St Pancras to catch the Javelin to the Olympic Park in Stratford.

The Javelin in itself is worth mentioning as it is not only free with every Olympic ticket but it is INCREDIBLY fast. It takes a mind-boggling six minutes! Only six minutes to go from St Pancras to the Olympic Park in Stratford – if only the rest of TfL came anywhere near to those speeds!

After our short journey, we grabbed lunch at an excited and happy Westfield (and although busy, we did not have to queue for GBK). On our walk to the Olympic Park, all we were struck by was how happy everyone was!

It was incredible, I’ve lived in London for three years and I’ve never seen anything like it. They’re not drunk, it’s not some sort of trick – everyone just seemed genuinely happy, and they were showing it.

As you walk around the area, everyone smiles and all the helpers get you excited by cheering, telling jokes, laughing, giving out high 5’s and talking through smiles as they direct you.

After all of this, me and my mum walked around the park, took in the fantastic scenery, atmosphere and the beauty of the park, with the small rivers, bridges, flowers and buildings. We headed inside early and got out our Union Jack flags ready for the event.

Once inside the stadium we talked to the people we were sitting next to and around, almost entirely Team GB fans and created a little community within our section of the audience. We watched the events we were privileged enough to see, including the medal ceremony for Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah! We also saw Christine Ohuruogu get Silver in the Women’s 400m final before the biggest event of the Olympics.

Before every single race the camera pans across all the athletes and you can hear the accompanying ROAR of applause for each athlete. Unsurprisingly, Usain Bolt was met with an explosion of noise, cheers and flashes of cameras from the entire stadium. There’s also the silence before the race, as everyone mimes a school lesson “shhhhh!” before the race. But for this one, it felt significantly longer, perhaps a combination of it genuinely being longer to get the crowd silent and the huge amount of tension in the stadium before the final trigger.

Even though the event was only nine seconds long, it felt a lot longer and nobody in the stadium could tell who was going to win until about seven seconds into the race! It was right at the end we could see Bolt pulling away and DONE!

The shortest event of the Olympics, the most intense and amazingly, probably the best to watch and be at!

After the event my mum and I hung around. We checked out the park at night including the water art-installation under the main bridge (which most people miss) and getting a night photo at the BP mirrored photobooth before a walk to West Ham and the District Line home.

To summarise this incredible spectacle is difficult, so I’m going to use a quote I read in the media on the day: ‘These are the hottest tickets in the world and everyone who has one knows it.’ I know I will remember the day for the rest of my life.”

Tags: London 2012
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Party in the park – Silfest 2012

9 August 2012

With face painting, jousting and dancing to DJ sets til 3am – this year’s uncommonly sunny Silfest, held on the 21 July and attracting over 300 revelers – had something for everyone. Reporter spoke to two of the organisers Hercules Araclides and Emilie Hall (both Life Sciences), to find out more.

Why did you get involved with organising Silfest?

Hercules: Everyone I spoke to told me pretty much the same thing about Silwood: either get involved or go insane! So I got involved with the hall reps, entertainments team, set up the music society, and so naturally I added Silfest to the list. Planning began a few months ahead of it, with the Silfest committee taking on different tasks.

What were the challenges of planning such a big event?

Emilie: I think any of the nine people central to organising this event would tell you it was more work than we were anticipating. We had to make a huge effort to try to involve as many people from outside the campus as possible, be that as guests, acts, suppliers or helping with publicity. With such lousy weather mid-summer, there were concerns when ticket sales had a slow start. Nevertheless, we broke even on the tickets and managed to raise £350 for our charity – the Berks, Bucks & Oxon Wildlife Trust – a voluntary organisation in the region concerned with all aspects of nature conservation.

What was different about this year’s Silfest?

Emilie: This year we had external caterers, Hardcore Prawn, Shambhu’s and Custom Creams, come in as opposed to the usual refectory BBQ. We have a number of BBQs large and small throughout the year, so I thought it was a prime opportunity to do something a little different. Besides, who can resist a cheeky brand name and custom ice cream made with liquid nitrogen! As for Shambhu’s, this is an ecology and conservation campus so unsurprisingly, we have a large number of vegetarian residents and it was important for me to make sure they had just as much choice as everyone else so we hired a vegan caterer!

What bands played this year?

Hercules: I’m in the band of students from Silwood who opened the event when it started at midday. We are called ‘Amphibians In The Kitchen’ and are pretty much an ensemble, with various combinations of six singers, two guitarists, two bassists, two percussionists, two ukelelists, a pianist and keyboardist, a drummer, a cellist, flautist, and a kazoo and cowbellist!

There were 10 bands playing throughout the day until 23.30, then things moved over to the Manor House for three DJ sets, until about 3.00. The other bands had either previously played Silfest, or were friends of students, and a couple were semi-local bands who added a nice bit of variety. The bands ranged from acoustic folk, indie, punk, old-school rock, blues, gaelic folk rock, psychedelic covers, indie-disco, and all points in between!

What were the highlights of Silfest for you?

Hercules: Probably seeing a real, living, breathing music festival fall into place in less than 24 hours, starting 16.30pm the previous day, when before then, it had only existed as receipts, emails, phonecalls, and countless reams of A4 paper. Plus, I got a huge kick out of doing what I enjoy by playing some of my favourite songs in front of a big crowd – and the fact that people were getting up and dancing for it was electrifying!

What was the atmosphere like?

Emilie: The atmosphere was fantastic and I was so touched by how many people came along to help the days before and after!

Hercules: Festivals can end up being quite messy, but everybody was in very good spirits, well-behaved, enthusiastic, and people enjoyed every single band. All this was amplified by the incredible clear-blue-sky weather!

Get a taste of the party atmosphere in the slideshow below

— Emily Ross-Joannou, Communications and Development

Tags: Life Sciences, Silwood Park Campus
Posted in College, Students | 2 Comments »

Perfect 10s at the Olympic shooting

8 August 2012

Lawrie Greenfield, the Imperial Rifle and Pistol Club captain reports on his experience of going to see an Olympic Prone Rifle event on Friday 3 August.

“This particular class of shooting is contested with a .22 calibre cartridge rifle – firing bullets at a target 50m away whilst lying down on your front. Hitting a 10 means touching a bullet on the 10.4mm 10-ring. At Olympic level shooting you expect to see the very top scores. This year certainly did not disappoint.

Two of us from Imperial’s Rifle and Pistol Club journeyed to Woolwich Arsenal for the event and sat ourselves with a good view of the two GB hopefuls, James Huckle and Jonathan Hammond. Whilst neither of the GB contenders disgraced themselves, neither managed to qualify in the top 12 who entered the shootoff for the eight places in the final.

During the course of the match many eyes in the range watched Sergei Martynov from Belarus – who, even against the wind with 50 of his 60 shots fired had scored a perfect 10 with every single one. He was heading for the record sixth time he had equalled the perfect 600 world record. All with very weary looking equipment and a unique (read bizarre) shooting style.

The final – held indoors and fired over 10 shots – saw him hang on to his barely assailable lead needing only 9.8 out of 10.9 (the scoring rings subdivided in the final) to break the world record for the overall final score too. The standing ovation given to him by the crowd of all different nations was well deserved. Lionel Cox from Belgium won Silver firing a 599 in qualifying, holding onto his three point lead on the third place in the final. Rajmond Debevec of Slovenia, started his career representing Yugoslavia in 1979 having taken up shooting in 1971. At the age of 49 he showed that he is still at the top of his game by holding onto his third place in the final for Bronze.”

Tags: London 2012
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Dizzying heights at the basketball

7 August 2012

James Lewis, who is doing a PhD in Earth Science and Engineering went to watch the Basketball in the Olympic Park with his parents. He reports on his experience:

“After all the anticipation, all the media reports predicting disaster and warnings of a transport apocalypse from TfL it’s finally here, a so far mostly flawless Olympic Games. Ever since the brilliant Opening Ceremony it’s been a slightly surreal but wonderful experience watching the events and living in this city.

Last week I got the chance to experience things first hand and went to go and see the women’s basketball. I’ve been lucky enough to get tickets to several different events and for this one I took my parents. We arrived at the park at 11 am and getting through security was very straightforward. In fact it was so quiet they looked very happy to see us. We came in through the north entrance from which there are great views of the velodrome and the Olympic Stadium and the Orbit to the south. Despite the thousands of people in the park the wide avenues and crowd management from the games maker volunteers meant that it was surprisingly easy to get around. The buildings were well spaced with lots of areas dedicated to grass and trees with the grassy banks around the River Lea acting as seating for a massive central TV screen floating on the water.

After a quick explore of the park it was time to go to our event. There was some queuing but everyone was good-natured. Looking west you could see the city’s fantastic skyline including the Shard, the Gherkin and the Eye. It remains to be seen if the Olympic Park can bring the same prosperity to East London but everything so far looks really positive.

While we were queuing a recording by Peter Dickson – of X Factor and E4 voiceover fame – went out every five minutes or so. Unfortunately they had only given him one fact to read so by the time we got in we were extremely aware of the fact that all of the doors in the arena were 2.4 metres high to accommodate the extra height of the basketball players.

Our seats were high up and gave a fantastic view of the whole arena. The steep sides meant that the noise and the atmosphere were incredible; it’s definitely not a stadium for vertigo sufferers! Being high up also gave us the advantage of avoiding ending up being embarrassed on kiss cam or bongo cam during the breaks in the games.

Two matches were scheduled for the afternoon session, Brazil vs. Australia and Great Britain vs. Russia. Some enthusiastic Aussies had smuggled in a horn and a big flag into our corner and they cheered on their team to a 67-61 victory. It helped that the Australians seemed to be about half a foot taller on average than their competitors. Their tallest player was a terrifying 6’8. Then it was the main event.

The roar as Great Britain came out was enormous and being amongst 12,000 people cheering on your home side was an incredible experience. Our support was definitely needed, Russia are ranked third in the world, Britain 49th. It seemed like a miracle might be on the cards when GB pulled ahead to 10 – 2 in the first five minutes. However, Russia’s superior skill soon began to show and a painful number of three pointers solidified their lead, but this was no ordinary competition. The fighting spirit of the home nation, who brought the score back to 58 – 61 with 54 seconds remaining, eclipsed the gulf in the team’s rankings. Sadly Russia maintained the edge but it was a fantastic match and a fantastic experience.

If you get an opportunity to attend an Olympic or Paralympic event I cannot recommend it enough.”

Tags: London 2012
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Olympic cheer and victory at the boxing

6 August 2012

Michael Barclay, who is doing an MRes in the Chemical Biology of Health and Disease in the Department of Chemistry went to see Olympic boxing at the Excel Centre with his dad.

“A sceptic or “miserable person” could shrug off the London Games as just another Olympics. It’s all on TV anyway, and apart from the lack of any time difference, what does it matter if the games are here or in Beijing? Yet the most enduring feeling of my visit to the Excel Centre on Wednesday was how the Games have truly taken over the city. Within around 30 minutes of meeting my Dad in the pub before we headed off to the bouts we stumbled across the runners up from the Quadruple skulls (pictured below), hanging about on the street with their silver medals!

It was something I hadn’t really thought about when I left College and headed for Excel. This wasn’t just some sporting event, this was the Olmypics and the Olympic experience is something that cannot be denied or ignored. The atmosphere within the arena was definitely a big part of it. It was electric. Sure we all got excited when the British lads were fighting as you’d expect, but the excitement barely faded. I’m not particularly much of a boxing fan, and these tickets were a gift from my dad, yet I spent most of my night screaming and cheering for boxers I’d never heard of.

The highlight was probably the final bantamweight bout, which was between an Azerbaijani and a Japanese boxer. For two rounds we watched as the Japanese athlete was outclassed but he came back fantastically in the third round. The crowd were furious when the Azerbaijani was still declared the victor although this decision was overturned the following morning.

All in all it was a fantastic and electric night, offering an experience far different from your average sporting events and I can’t wait to see my next game!”

Tags: London 2012
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Drinks, ice and towels – Lorenz on being a volunteer

3 August 2012

Mayesbrook Park Training Courts

For three shifts during the first week, I was based at the training centre for the handball teams which is in Mayesbrook, close to Barking on the very eastern end of the District Line. It should take me about 90 minutes to get there from Vauxhall, if everything runs smoothly. The other day however I had to wait for five Northern Line tubes until I could get on!

The site itself is a huge sports hall that encompasses four handball pitches. The Olympics legacy plan is that it will become the main training centre for British handball after the Games are over. Based on the current performance of the GB handball team, I wonder if they can fill all four courts there:)

As Games Makers we all get assigned a team and we prepare drinks, ice and towels on the training court for our allocated team, as well as ensuring everything they need is in the changing room before they arrive. For handball players it is extremely important that the surface is dry. As they are too lazy to mop wet spots themselves we have been assigned this glamorous task throughout the sessions!

What I like about working there is that the atmosphere is less tense than before a Game. That means the players and trainers (at least most of them) are really relaxed and we get a chance to chat to them. And they show things they normally don’t in the Games. For example, a certain player from Team Sweden (I do know his name but I shouldn’t really tell) could not fully participate in the training because of an injury. So he fixed a ball in the upper left corner of the goal and started shooting on it from about 10 metres away.

Almost all the men’s handball teams play football as a warm up game. And they are pretty good at this as well. The women bring their stereos so they can listen to some music during the warm up. This gets pretty painful for the ears if both teams leave their stereos on!

Weekly highlight!

On Tuesday 31 July during the women’s France v Spain match, the spectators got quite excited as all of a sudden the French President François Hollande (pictured above), and David Cameron arrived to watch some handball.

Read more of Lorenz’s blog posts

Tags: London 2012, Olympic handball blog
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Olympic handball volunteer blog – first shift begins…

3 August 2012

Copper Box Arena

Having watched the Opening Ceremony in a pub I was quite happy to have the afternoon shift on Saturday 28 July. The venue for the handball is the Copper Box arena, which is the only arena apart from the Olympic Stadium and the swimming pool that will become part of the much talked about legacy. It takes its name from the copper plates that surround the whole arena. If you didn’t know what it was – you wouldn’t recognise it as an arena because it only fits about 6000 spectators!

Fun fact: The aim of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) was to build an energy efficient and sustainable stadium. Therefore the Copper Box Arena has about 60 giant glass windows in the ceiling allowing plenty of daylight to come in and saving on energy costs. Now take a guess how much daylight enters the arena during the Olympics? ZERO! A sudden change of weather might affect the athletes. That’s why all the football stadiums have roofs too:)

My shift on the first day of official competition

To be honest, most of the time was spent sitting and watching the games – which I can’t really complain about! I was positioned in corner two with another Games Maker which is the entrance for all the photographers. We were only allowed to let photographers in who had the correct bibs and correct accreditation. As photographers have a tendency to stay on the field during the games as that is what they are paid for, we could enjoy the Games and only had to worry about complaining photographers before and after!

During half time, one Games Maker has to stay in the corner and the other needs to check the nets of the goal. Often the clips that tighten the net to the metal bars loosen which isn’t really a surprise bearing in mind the balls reach over 100 km/h. Then we also had to tidy the benches during half time as , in contrast to football, handball players swap the benches so that the team is always on the side on which they are defending.

At the end of the day comes the greatest task which is cleaning the balls You might know that in order to have better control over the ball the players put resin on their hands which inevitably ends up on the balls. You might also notice that throughout the game handball players often touch their shoes – this is because they have double-sided sticky tape attached to their shoes with a bit of resin on them so they can add more during the game. Of course with this glue-like resin you don’t just turn on a tap, hold the balls under the water and they look clean again. Instead we had to use a special resin cleaner that does not smell particularly nice and to clean it off we had to use old towels. On my first shift we had to clean about 40 balls which took us from 23.00 to midnight. Needless to say it did not take me long to fall asleep that night!

Read more of Lorenz’s blog posts

Tags: London 2012, Olympic handball blog
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Vox pop

2 August 2012

Reporter spoke to a number of prospective students and parents, who were enjoying a very sunny Science and Engineering Open Day on 28 June 2012

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Tags: Open Day
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Summer studies

30 July 2012

At the start of the month, 23 Chinese undergraduates arrived at Imperial for a two week summer programme.  The students spent their time learning entrepreneurship, marketing and transferrable skills as well as getting an insight into British culture.

The programme also included a marketing plan competition and a company visit to Harrods. Four Imperial student ambassadors were on hand to give the Chinese students an insight into life as a student at Imperial.

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Olympic welcome party

27 July 2012

Third year Electrical and Electronic Engineering student Matthew Tan is the Team Liaison for the Swedish men’s handball team.

What will be your role at the Olympics?

I’ll be informing the Swedish men’s handball team of their schedule, and making sure they are in the right place at the right time. I wasn’t a big handball fan before but I think I’m being converted!

(more…)

Tags: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, London 2012
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A-mazing flame!

27 July 2012

At 7.18am this morning, on the final day of the torch relay, first year medical undergraduate Klara Weaver carried the Olympic torch through Hampton Court Maze stopping only to pose for the cameras in the centre.

Klara, who is on a rowing scholarship at Imperial and hopes to compete in the 2016 Olympics, was given the chance to carry the flame by Lloyds TSB as she is one of the up-and-coming athletes sponsored by the Banks’ Local Heroes Scheme. The grant has helped to pay for Klara’s rowing training and equipment.

Since the 16 July Klara has been on the Lloyds TSB bus which has been travelling ahead of the torch relay to stir up the crowd. Klara was only offered the chance to be a torchbearer on Wednesday so she didn’t have much time to prepare. “I’d been watching the relay for the last week and a half but it was unbelievable to actually carry it,” she says.

A number of Kara’s classmates from Imperial and friends from the Rowing Club came to support her as well as her dad and boyfriend and her mum who watched it online. “I was really surprised how many people there were lining the maze especially at that time – it was overwhelming!” she reveals.

Klara didn’t have to worry about getting lost in the maze as she had a guide who worked at Hampton Court to lead her through although she did admit to having one concern about the experience: “I had lots of texts from friends in the last couple of days warning me not to set fire to the maze!” Klara says. “I was a bit worried to be honest – there was one archway that was quite low so I had to put the flame in front of me to get through,” she adds.

Klara was selected by Lloyds TSB because of her commitment and dedication to her sport of Rowing. Klara was double junior European champion when she was 16, she has won four national titles, competed at the Junior World Championships, and came 7th out of 24, and has won Women’s Henley twice.

— Emily Ross-Joannou, Communications and Development

Tags: London 2012
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