Amy Williams, Bath's Vancouver 2010 golden girl, tells the Daily Mail about her new found celebrity status, competing at the Olympic Winter Games and winning that stunning gold medal. Amy To read the full interview please ...
Mike Callan’s Blog
Friday 15th August 2008
Hi Everyone, For the last two days I have managed to get a judo ticket each day. We are so lucky to know so many people around the world, and lots of friends in the judo venue have been helping us to get tickets. The standard has been really high, with a wide spread of medals. Today two of the favourites won, Ishii of Japan in the men’s event and home crowd favourite, Tong in the women’s event. The stadium erupted when she finally won the final with only eight seconds remaining. Bad luck to Maki Tsukada, the silver medallist. Maki is a good friend of former Team Bath coach Hidemi Soda.
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I have been sitting with the Japanese delegation, and today in my role as President of the International Association of Judo Researchers I was invited to speak at the Symposium on the Science and Medicine of Judo to be held in Tokyo in December. We have also been speaking to friends from Brazil, South Africa, France, USA, and many other countries including or course, Malta.
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Today the Maltese Delegation extended an invitation to Ged and myself to tour the Olympic Village, certainly an opportunity not to be missed. We decided to walk there from the Water Cube, which doesn’t look far on the small map we had! Anyway we eventually arrived, to be greeted by Juergen and Marie-Therese Zammitt, Deputy Chef de Mission for Malta. Marie-Therese was so hospitable, taking the time to show us all around the village before showing us into the largest dining room on the planet, filled with the planet’s best athletes. The biggest challenge of the day was decided which of the food from around the world I should start with.
We hadn’t been in the village five minutes before bumping into Caroline Searle, on her way out to the rowing events. It was fantastic to be in such a place and come across a familiar face. When we reached the British delegation accommodation we also met Jan Paterson, who seemed to be solving 10 problems at once, and was really pleased to see us.
The Village is a fascinating place and made me realise that the multi-sport approach to sports development that we adopt in Bath is the only way forward to prepare athletes for the biggest event of their lives.
Yesterday I went with Yuko to the silk market, to try our negotiation skills. Yuko is a great coach and we discussed strategy before entering the fray. She bagged a great looking Chinese brush, and I walked away with a pair of training shoes for the equivalent of eight pounds. Eevn Jessica our Chinese guide was impressed with our haggling technique.
This morning I had one weightlifting ticket and managed to catch an hour of the Clean and Jerk. .jpg)
The weightlifting venue has a great atmosphere and reminded me of my days as a weightlifting coach when I worked in London.
Tomorrow we have to leave the flat at 7 am to get to the Great Wall. I wonder if you will be able to see the Team Bath logos from outer space?
Bye for now.
Great Wall of China photo taken by Rev Angela Berners-Wilson.
Beijing photos provided by Mike Callan.
Thursday 14th August 2008
Hi Everyone, I am the University of Bath Sports Development Manager, it’s August 14th and I’ve now been in Beijing well over a week, arriving on the 5th. There are six of us from the University out here primarily for the judo. Katrina McDonald, Matt Divall, Michelle Holt, Diego Scardone, and Yuko Nakano.
We are supporting Marcon Bezzina who competed in the u63k on Tuesday.
The apartment we are renting from Bath Alumni Jessica Xu, is clean and tidy and Jessica has had internet fitted ready for our stay. It was great to be met by her at the airport, really made us feel welcome.
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One of the first things we had to do was go with Yuko to the Olympic Village to pick up her accreditation. She has a role as a training partner for the Maltese team so she can warm up Marcon. The Chef de Mission for the Maltese Delegation Julian Pace Bonello was fantastic and whicked Yuko off in his official car to the accreditation area. Since then Yuko has been leaving the flat early each morning to catch the tube to the judo training venue to work with Juergen and Marcon.
Juergen Klinger, the University Head Coach is out here in a role as the Head Coach for Malta.
After a couple of days orienting ourselves and shopping and sightseeing, we marked our pitch for the opening ceremony. In a bar on Houhai Lake, reserved for journalists and media. We were shown into the area by the Chinese Army, who appreciated Diego and Michelle with their flags and hats for Brazil and the UK.
Marcon was one of the first into the stadium and when we started cheering her we were joined by the rest of the Chinese Media types with us in the bar. After the torch was lit we ran outside to view the incredible firework display over the lake. We were so close we were showered with firework. Easily the most powerful show I have experienced.
The following day we went to the judo venue for the first time. We met other Bath students there, Darren Warner, who is a GB National Coach and who helped us with extra tickets, and Densign White, BJA Chairman, who is also on the BOA Executive. We also met Andre van Zyl. Andre is the Adviser to the President of the International Judo Federation. He has really gone out of his way to try to supply us with all the tickets we need. Thanks Andre.
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The standard of the judo has been incredible, with some huge upsets mixed with some reigning champions retaining their Olympic titles. Marcon fought really bravely with a tough draw against the African Games Champion who was simply too powerful for her and managed to block all her attacks. Player for the tournament for me so far has been Ayumi Tanimoto, the gold medallist in Marcon’s weight who scored with a huge uchimata to win the final.
Later in the week we met Tom Reed who was selected for the 2012 Olympic Ambitions Programme, and who came in from Macau where he had experienced the GB holding Camp. It was also great to see Ben Fletcher, brother of Megan who was one of only two Brits selected for the Olympic Youth Camp. We were also joined by Chris Millward.
I went to watch the most incredible Acrobat Show. Amazing feats performed by these Chinese children was breathtaking and certainly makes you think about the coaching methods required to achieve these performances.
Yesterday we managed to get into London House to meet with Ged and Guy Lavender. It was a nice evening chatting to many people working for LOCOG. I think they realise that the Chinese have raised the bar in terms to the standard of the opening ceremony and the huge numbers of volunteers.
Need to get off now to another event. Hope to blog again soon.