A few general notes
I think many of you have heard about the troubles to get everything prepared, and I have to say it is all true. The city was working furiously--painting, organizing, scrambling-- as best they could. Anxiety remains over the games in terms of how it will play on the international stage: what and how India will learn from putting on such a big event remains to be seen. All said, I just remember the CWG were a joint federal, state, and local government venture so there are extra challenges that come with that.
Delhi has made this super easy for the competitors, press, and others affiliated with the games. In particular the CWG lanes are really being used. Makes it hard for us normal people to move around since they are taking away lanes all over the city. Even with clear roads it is difficulte as there is little signage for entrance and exit of most facilities. There are lots of police around to ask directions, but they often had no clue what we were talking about. But we got to the events, even if it was often a bit (or very) late.
A couple of other random interesting notes before I get into specific events:
1. none of the venues has CWG merchandise for sale. None. Website doesn't tell me where I can buy it either. Oh capitalism
2.most venues are hard to find, well easy to find but entrances are hard to find. Factor between 1-2 hours to get from home to each venue. Farthest one is I think around 15km
3. lots of empty unused space in stadium complexes
4. there have been some doping cases. Strangest one is an Indian woman's speed walker. You can't make this stuff up.
5.India is actually doing really well. It is their best showing ever. Three overall in medal count with only a few events left
Indoor Cycling
Last Wednesday we went to our first event: indoor track cycling. A few notes: first, it took us one hour to get to the event, and another 45 minutes for the cab to figure out where to drop us, then a mile walk to the stadium. I am not kidding. When we arrived we saw there were about 3 times as many volunteers as spectators.
The event was cool. It was a qualifying round of both team and individual chase. For those not versed in indoor track cycling (we googled it): team cycling is a time trial. Individual race is 2 people on the track (for qualifiers) who take two laps trying to do strategy and get into position, and the final lap is an all out sprint. Below are a few photos from that event.
Team race that gives you perspective of the track. This is the Indian team.
In team trials, the first person drops back to the end on the bends so the whole team shares the load of being in front/can draft from the back.
Australian team in tight formation coming around the bend.
Ok, so this is the first two laps of one on one competition. This is the strategy part. Guy on segway, well he is filming but it is also amusing.
Outside the stadium after the race.
Badminton
Thursday night was a big event-badminton. This venue proved equally challenging to get to and our taxi driver searched endlessly for the entrance, which was across the street and over a temporary bridge from the stadium. I got the third degree trying to get into the stadium. The woman who searched-rather frisked-me was quite mean. She kept questioning what I had in my pocket (I had to literally empty out my mini-wallet to prove it was just money). In the end she confiscated my chapstick "not allowed!" Crazy.
This was semifinals of team play. Since US is not home to bastions of badminton fans, here is the deal. The team play is a set of 5 matches: singles men, singles women, doubles men, doubles women, and mixed doubles. We saw India vs. England, and Malaysia vs. Singapore. India is a powerhouse and took silver in this event. They have Saina, the #2 ranked woman in the world and she is only 18. She is up for singles gold tomorrow. It was totally packed because of course India loves this sport, and they have serious contenders. It is amazing how wimpy the serve looks, then they go up and just hammer the shuttlecock. By the way badminton players here are often called shuttlers. see below for the pictures.
Sandip is excited
This is the Indian player from the men's singles part of team play.
Saina! She is a rock star-on all ads for the games. Ranked #2 in world in badminton. This is her serving. Looks kind of wimpy.
Saina showing some power. She dominated this poor woman from England. The crowd is going "Saina, Saina" with three claps. Just totally nuts.
Friday was gymnastics-same venue as Wednesday's event but different building. Still difficult to get to it, but we managed to make it and only miss one event. Sandip had to miss this event so I went with our neighbor Teresa and we saw women's beam and floor final as well as men's vault, parallel bars, and high bar. It was the first sport I watched where there wasn't a powerhouse involved, and it was a dramatic difference. This did not diminish from the fun. This event was also packed.
My neighbor Teresa. She is so super nice.
View outside on the pavilion. Guy in red and white is a volunteer.
Me outside the venue.
This was the largest crowd I saw up until that point.
These guys started the medal procession.
The medals carried by the women.
This is the first medal ceremony of the night-men's vault. India is #2
We missed a full weekend of events because we went to Jaipur (will post about that later). Tuesday (last night) was the mega highlight. We bought the tickets about a week ago because the timing was good, and we ended up with two games. First was the semi final round of men's field hockey: India vs. England. Cricket is the only one sport bigger here than men's field hockey. The stadium was PACKED. Unfortunately, Sandip missed this game (he made it for game two, a consolation game between Canada and Malaysia). Sam and I got there middle of the second half (though amazingly found the venue easily) just as India was tying it 3-3. They played one full overtime and then went to penalty shots which India won. This is THE event India wants gold in so badly. The photos don't to the energy in the stadium justice. It was truly wild. We stayed for most of the second game and actually a good chunk of the crowd did too-shows you there is just a love of the sport.
No one outside the event because everyone is inside. These guys are literally sprinting to get there.
The tied score.
Here they are playing it out for a ball in the corner. India is in blue.
Another action shot
Shot from our seats
The very large very enthusiastic crowd.
Lining up for the penalty shots after overtime. Each team gets 5 shots like this, and at the end the one with most shots into goal wins. This is where India won it 5-4
The victory lap!
This is the next game, and the defenders on corner penalty shot. They all go put these Jason looking masks on and the ball starts near the baseline next to the goal.
