Woodford's YGM Team at the Olympics
In addition to the club’s Olympic athletes and officials that were on duty during the Games, the club also had a team of 16 and 17 year old athletes undertaking kit carrying for the athletes. Our Young Games Makers Team were present in the Olympic Stadium on days 5, 6, 7 and 9 (four of the last 5 days of competition) and were responsible for collecting athletes’ kit at the race start and taking it back to the post-competition room. This was a truly memorable experience and a hugely privileged one which gave them access to the myriad of underground corridors, the call room area, the entrances to the track and the track itself. It also brought them into the company of many of the big name athletes and this certainly set the team’s collective pulse racing. The team of
Jasmine Brown-Rasé, Tyler Bown, Holly Bedeau, Joseph Dewar, Lucy Hayes, Pamela Milla, Isobel Moss, Nya Petinaud, Stephanie Smith and Rhiann Van-Horne under the guidance of Team Leaders Colin Wint and Alistair Holford were first on duty for the evening session on Tuesday 7th August.
They kit carried for the men’s 800m semi-final containing Andrew Osagie and world record holder David Rudisha with eagle-eyed viewers spotting the team on the live television broadcast. Later on during the evening, their neat presence at the track edge whilst awaiting the men’s 1500 final came under serious threat from the posse of photo-journalists reversing in front of a jubilant Sally Pearson doing a lap of honour after winning the 100m hurdles. Oblivious the havoc they were about to cause, the benefit of having Team Leaders at each end of the line became clear as Alistair was able to fend the cameramen off and divert them clear of the team.
The following morning, the power of the crowd’s roar became apparent as the team waited in the tunnel and heard Dan Awde’s name announced before his 100m decathlon round – this really set the hairs on the back of the neck tingling. The team were on duty for Mo Farah’s 5000m heat with Rhiann the lucky recipient of his kit - rewind the dvd for another view of the team as Mo keeps himself loose prior to the start. After this, it was back out for the women’s 800m heat containing Lynsey Sharp on route to her semi-final place.
The highlight on Thursday evening was expected to be the men’s 200m final and of course, which YGM Team would get to carry Usain Bolt’s kit (this honour went to the Newham Athletics Network) but there were other events that evening. Whilst lining up in the SE tunnel before the women’s 4x100 heats, we were able to watch David Rudisha break the 800m world record with a breathtaking exhibition of front running. This was also the vantage point that enabled us to watch the men’s 200m final and the ensuing media circus that followed the three Jamaican medallists on their parade lap.
The closing evening’s competition was the team’s last shift – as this evening only had four track finals, there wasn’t a lot of kit carrying to do but every cloud has a silver lining. The team was assigned the women’s 4x400 final; this required the kit teams for legs two, three and four to line up with the athletes in the mixed zone tunnel adjacent to the finish line. It was an interesting experience being held in a confined space with 24 nervous and edgy athletes who just wanted to race but were required to stay in line with the kit teams; the Czech team at the front of the line nervously chatted whilst having room to do drills and bounce around whilst other teams sat, stretched or, like the Brits at the back just stood quietly staring out to the track. As there were only 8 teams in the event, two of our team would otherwise have had nothing to do but we were able to loan them out to the Shaftsbury team who were rostered for two finals – Stephanie Smith got to carry Bernard Legat’s kit in the 5000m final and Nya Petinaud was in lane 9 with the bronze medal winning Trinidad and Tobago team for the men’s 4x100 final. As for the silver lining, our shift pattern allowed us to go and find vantage points in the stadium crowd to spectate; watching the men’s 5000m and 4x100 finals will live in the memory for a long time as will the incredible, collective, urging noise supporting Mo and willing him across the line to victory.
The team were a credit to the club and performed their duties in an exemplary way – it was an inspiring opportunity but also very enjoyable. Tyler said ‘I thought that the four day's we had were fantastic! I can't stop thinking about how we all worked as a team so well and actually had such a huge laugh when we weren't on duty too. It was the best experience I ever had and will not be forgotten!’; for Isobel, her highlight was ‘kit carrying for David Rudisha in the 800m semi finals and also appearing on the television alongside Andrew Osagie - two Harlow athletes’. After the long lead up, all the training and preparation, it was a fantastic experience.