London Olympic Timetable - First Monday

By London_Duncan Last edited 187 months ago
London Olympic Timetable - First Monday
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After some good old British summer weekend weather had outdoor athletes scurrying for cover (except for Nicole Cook and her fellow cyclists who somehow largely avoided skidding into brick walls fronted by ditches) our first representatives on show today are the men's hockey team led by recent Londonist interviewee Ben Hawes, who get their campaign underway at 3:30am (all times BST) against Pakistan, a traditional hockey superpower, but currently ranked only one place above England at 7th. Other women asked to endure in yesterday's downpour were our hockey team who suffered at the hands of both the elements and world champions Germany. It's hard to argue with a scoreline as emphatic as 5-1, but there was little to choose between the teams in open play. Superior execution in both goalmouths meant that the Germans made maximum gain from the opportunities they created. Tomorrow for our ladies it's only the world second ranked Argentinians, though at least Team GB holds a recent victory over them.

Wandsworth's Andy Murray might also begin his rained off singles first round match against Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan/Chinese Taipei as early as 3:30am and later on he could be competing again, this time with brother Jamie against Canada's Daniel Nestor and Frederic Niemeyer as the tournament officials try to get things back on track.

Over breakfast at 7:30am you could catch London born Blake Aldridge going for gold in the men's synchronised 10m platform diving final. Blake has often competed as a solo springboard diver, but has started to taste medal success since teaming up with a new partner. They've won a bronze in Beijing already this year in a World Cup event as well as a gold at a world series competition in Sheffield. Blake's partner's is called Tom Daley and apparently he's a 14 year old lad from Plymouth which, we suppose, might earn him a mention in passing here and there.

Our women's and men's eights oarsfolk will row their heats as the diving is unfolding having also been thwarted by yesterday's storms. Around 10:20 Elise Laverick will be repechaging away like mad having come third in Saturday's women's double sculls heats. Our congratulations are due to single sculler Alan Campbell, both men's fours and Stephen Rowbotham and Matthew Wells in the double sculls for progressing to their next rounds while Louisa Reeve and her partner threw out the form book to grab third and a second chance in the repechage of the women's pairs. In the lightweight double sculls Mark Hunter went through and Hester Goodsell must try again in the repechage.

Middleweight boxer James DeGale made it through comfortably after a slow start first thing on Saturday morning, but we, like gold medallist Nicole Cook, reserve a special commendation for Emma Pooley's efforts on her behalf up and down hills in horrible conditions which paved the way for Nicole's thoroughly deserved success.

A full timetable of all events can be found on the BBC Sport site. There is also an excellent interactive schedule on the Team GB site.

Picture from Hong Kong airport via Mr_Woo's Flickr stream.

Last Updated 11 August 2008