Trip to the Olympics Part 2 – Getting the Value

I like to try and get a little bit of value in everyday life as well as in betting markets. As discussed in part 1 Lord Coe kindly gave me some value with some free travelcards; the advised travel website for London which dealt with tube journeys did not.

It claimed that multiple changes across London was the best route to the Olympic stadium. Shrewdly I saw through this ruse as an attempt to spread ticket holders around the capital city and decided instead to head the most direct route possible. Due to multiple e-mails suggesting getting there early due to increased security etc we still set off silly early. My shrewd move led to us sailing to the Olympic Stadium and we were there comfortably before the start of the morning athletics session. 1-0 me on the shrewd scoreboard.

Like a flight, bottles of drink were not allowed on the premises for security and we spotted some discreet water fountains away from the main plaza to top up our expired drinks and headed to the stadium to check out our seats. Passing enormous queues for the more obviously located water fountains meant it was now 2-0. A quick programme for the kids was £5 and not all that. 2-1.

My next piece of value was strangely obtained in the Olympic megastore. With grandparents spending money burning the proverbial hole in the kids’ pockets we fought through crowds and were admitting defeat due to the number of eager to spend punters going 30 deep at the tills, until I spied some Team GB sweat bands perched upon the “returns” section of customer service. No queue here so kids adorned in team colours took 20 seconds rather than a possible 20 minutes. 3-1.

We then settled in to our seats to settle down for the morning session of athletics which consisted of the following qualifying heats; Men’s 200m (Bolt and Blake on show), Men’s Triple Jump Qualifying (oh dear Phillips Idowu), Women’s Javelin, Men’s 110m hurdles and Women’s 5000m.

Having a fair mix of run, jump and throw meant there was something for everyone. Unquestionably the highlight was watching Usain Bolt jog round a track like he was a parent joining in the kids’ race at a primary school sports day. Simply staggering to see live comparing him to other top notch elite athletes. It may be a touch clichéd but seeing him live was something quite special.

Leaving the stadium after a morning that kept all of us happy and enthralled, I bumped into an old colleague. He told me he had been lucky enough to get a ticket for the previous Sunday evenings athletics which included the Men’s 100m final. After seeing Bolt live in 200m heats running at 90% I think it would be fair to say that he got the best value. 1-0 him.