Memoirs of Beijing

Day 6 in Beijing and the weather is as usual gray with heavy downpour early to mid-afternoon. It’s a slow day for Team Philippines as only Daniel Coakley was seen in action. Daniel is the great-grandson of two-time Olympic bronze medalist Teofilo Yldefonso who competed in the 1928 and 1932 Olympic Games.

Daniel Coakley competed in Heat #9 with a start time of 22.80 seconds. He placed 6th out of 8 swimmers clocking in 22.69 seconds. In a field of 97, he placed 39.

Tomorrow, there would be 3 athletes from Team Philippines competing namely Christel Simms (50m freestyle), Ryan Arabejo (1500m freestyle) and Shiela Mae Perez (3m springboard). Also, check out my backstage pictures during the Opening Ceremonies through this link.

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Day 5 in Beijing and we’re back to smog in the city. I made a mistake in my previous update and missed one athlete vying today. Four athletes will see action today namely Mark Javier (Archery), Harry Tanamor (Boxing), Miguel Molina and Christel Simms (Swimming).

As we end the day, it’s a sad day for Team Philippines. Mark Javier lost 102 to 106 against Kuo Cheng Wei of Chinese Taipei this afternoon in the first knockout stage. Christel Simms placed 4th out of 7 swimmers in Heat #2 of the 100m freestyle clocking in 56.67 seconds. Best time from all the heats is 53.60 seconds.

Miguel Molina’s 200m individual medley. He swam in Heat 2 and placed 2nd out of 7 swimmers clocking in at 2:01.61 seconds.  Harry Tanamor‘s match against Ghana ended with the other boxer winning by 6 to 3.

Tomorrow, there will only be one swimmer competing.  Daniel Coakley in the 50m freestyle at 6:49pm.  On Friday, our taekwondo jins will arrive in Beijing for their competition on the 20th & the 22nd.

In other Olympic action.. Phelps won his 5th gold today and is on track to win 8 gold in the 8 events which he would be competing.  He’s taking a rest tomorrow on the medal standing and will be back on Friday.  The Chinese women’s gymnastic team took the gold away from the US who won in Athens.  Cuba defeated 2004 gold medalist women’s volleyball team China in their preliminary games with a score of 3-2.

Till tomorrow…

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After only a few hours of sleep on early Saturday morning, I had to wake up to attend a luncheon event at the Asia Hotel. The host of this event is President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Guests included the Filipino athletes who were already there for the Olympics as well as the flag bearer Mr. Manny Pacquiao and his “inspiration” Jinkee.

The event started at 11am with dancing from a Chinese group and the introduction of the athletes with the ‘standard’ Olympic Cheer introduced by China (heh!). My friend, Marco hosted the first part of the event while waiting for President Arroyo to arrive. Congressmen and members of the cabinet arrived a few minutes earlier than Arroyo. I was seated with the Congressman from Pampanga and Leyte. Tito Sotto was also there looking tough as the head of the Dangerous Drugs Board. Chavit Singson was also there sharing seats beside the Pacman.

When the President arrived, Consular Leyda introduced a cause which they would like to promote that day, the “World Simultaneous Breastfeeding Event”. The person in charge was quite passionate with her cause that she even encourages mothers to have their children breastfed till 6 years old. (EWW! 6?! Di na yun baby!) They’ve held Guinness Book of World Records on the most number of breastfeeding mother-child pair in one and simultaneous event. They presented a medal to the policewoman in Sichuan who breastfed 9 infants in the aftermath of the earthquake. Read the rest of this entry »

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It’s Day 4 in Beijing and the weather is perfect for sightseeing and outdoor sports. Tourist should be cautious as one American was already stabbed to death last Saturday at the Drum Tower. As for our athletes, only Miguel Molina was seen in action today at 7:28pm at the Water Cube.

Molina swam in the 2nd heat of the 200m breaststroke preliminaries. He clocked in at 2:16.94 to finish 6th on his heat. He wasn’t able to match his personal best of 2:16.62 which he registered in the Janet Evans International Invitational last July in California. There goes his dream but he’ll get another chance tomorrow in the 200m individual medley preliminaries.

So for a recap, out of the 15 athletes, three already are out of the medal running. Tomorrow will be a big day as four athletes will see action most importantly Harry Tanamor’s match against Plange at 8:15pm (not 8:45pm as previously announced).

For Day 5 updates, click this link.   For Olympic Park and some Games pictures, click this link.

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On my previous blog, I’ve posted the schedule for Harry Tanamor of Boxing. On this one, I’ll give you a recap of the athletes who’ve already competed and their outcome then the remaining athletes’ schedules.

In Day 3 of the Beijing Olympics, four of our athletes have already competed. Three of them bombed out while the other one has to compete on the knockout stages. Eric Ang of Trap Shooting competed in Day 1 & 2 ended up dead last in a field of 35. First-timer Hidilyn Diaz competed today in weightlifting under 58kg category and placed 11 out of 12 athletes. She was able to lift 85 kg in the snatch and 107 in the clean & jerk category.

James Walsh competed this evening in heat #2 of the 200m butterfly and finished first in his heats clocking 1:59.39. This time wasn’t enough to move on to the semifinal round. Mark Javier of Archery competed in Day 1 for the preliminaries and got an aggregate score of 654 to placed 36 in a field of 64. He will move on to the knockout stage against Kuo Cheng Wei of Chinese-Taipei on August 13, 3:30pm.

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I met Harry for the first time during the luncheon meeting hosted by Pres. Arroyo at the Asia Hotel in Beijing. My first impression of him was he’s a simple, humble man who doesn’t like attention and respects people. He has muscles which any man could envy but he looks so slim that a wind might blow him away. Well, what do you expect from someone competing in light flyweight division. They all can’t be more than 48 kg.

As for their group, there are 29 boxers and preliminaries will start on the 13th of August. 3 boxers drew bye and won’t see action till the 16th. For Harry, should he win all his matches, his schedule will be like this:

13 August 19:00 to 22:30 – We will see Harry in action against Manyo Plange of Ghana at 815pm (moved from 845pm).  Outcome.. Harry lost 3 to 6 against Ghana..
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They held another dress rehearsal last Saturday for the opening ceremonies and this one was much better than Wednesday.  There were fireworks which made me giddy like a kid and the opening act was “WOW”.  I missed the opening act last Wednesday so I made it a point to really watch it that night.  I wasn’t disappointed, I will add that act as one of my favorites!  The broadcast show on the TV inside was much better this time but it’s so irritating to see “Not for Broadcast” on the middle of the screen.  I guess they’re paranoid because of Korea’s SBS TV Network’s coverage.

The show started at 8:08 pm.. and there was even a countdown with matching fireworks when the clock stroke 8:08.  No downpours marred the dress rehearsal so all acts were completed.  4 batches of fireworks were lit and the last one was at 10:02 pm.  According to the news, the fireworks they lit last Saturday was just a third of the fireworks display which we will see during the opening ceremonies.  I can’t wait to see the full display!  I heard they will form letters in the air just like in Sydney.

Earlier that evening around 6pm, the different provinces of China performed acts which represent their provinces.  It lasted for an hour and my friend was impressed with the Hong Kong dancers.

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Last July 29, the National Stadium hosted the second dress rehearsal for the Opening Ceremonies. It was gloomy, windy and smelled like it’s gonna rain. I took the subway from my office to the Bird’s Nest via line 10. As it was my first time to ride this line to the Bird’s Nest, I wasn’t as confident as usual. The hallway which connects line 10 to line 8 was barricaded and questions to volunteers lead me to a path outside. Once I exited C1, I was out on the road with no signs whatsoever which had me confused. Line 8 at present is only used by staff and volunteers connected to the Olympics. I had to go through security as if I was in the airport. Once that was completed, I had to go back down to the station again and ride line 8.

Anyway, the stop I was supposed to get off to was close so I had to get off the next stop. When I got off, I was amazed by my surroundings. It was totally different and beautiful. The serenity and the quaintness of my surroundings was worth the long walk back to the Bird’s Nest.

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The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee recently posted on their website the house rules for spectators when watching Olympic matches.   I suggest you print it out as sometimes they might have their own rules which are unreasonable and you have something to disprove them.

I remember attending one of the Good Luck Beijing games and I had some paracetamol with me.  They informed me that I can’t bring it in.   As I was in a hurry, I just let it be.   This time, I’ll come prepared and print myself a copy of the house rules.

The House Rules are as follow:

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The Phase 4 of the Beijing Olympic ticket general public sales will start tomorrow, July 25. A total of 820,000 tickets will be sold to the public of which 250,000 are for sports events to be held in Beijing.

Ticket sales will start from July 25, 9am to 6pm until the tickets are sold out. Each person can only purchase a maximum of 2 tickets for one event. They also put a cap on how many tickets will be sold daily and for which events. No English list yet out there.

Ticket buyers can proceed to the respective venues ticket office except for the events in the Bird’s Nest, Water Cube, National Indoor Stadium, Fencing Hall and Wukesong Baseball Field. These tickets will be sold at the main box office in Beitucheng Road. Payment method is either cash or VISA credit card. Invoices can also be issued, if needed. For more information, visit the ticketing website at http://www.tickets.beijing2008.cn/?lang=en-cn

So.. what are you waiting for? You sure won’t see me there! Hehehe.. I already have a bunch of tickets which I won from Phase 1 to 3. See you at the Games!

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