2012 Olympic Athletics Days - which one?

Brianderunner

G-Money wrote: »

Tempted to book some flights myself now, but with 0 Olympic tickets to my name it's hard to know what dates to go for.

Do 2 or 3 days i'd say and catch the womens marathon and a couple of other free events. You never know what you'll pick up over here then. If your booking flights make sure you have accomodation. It's through the roof from what I see, the hotels must be loving it.

Pisco Sour

Brianderunner wrote: »

Do 2 or 3 days i'd say and catch the womens marathon and a couple of other free events. You never know what you'll pick up over here then. If your booking flights make sure you have accomodation. It's through the roof from what I see, the hotels must be loving it.

Let's not forget the walks, with Olive Loughnane going in the womens 20k, and without doubt our best medal hope in the men's 20k and men's 50k, Rob Heffernan. I have a seriously good feeling Rob is going to do the business next year!

All of this is free, unless you want to pay for Seb Coe's limo to the event. You can do this if you would like to sit at the finish line.

Brianderunner

04072511 wrote: »

Let's not forget the walks, with Olive Loughnane going in the womens 20k, and without doubt our best medal hope in the men's 20k and men's 50k, Rob Heffernan. I have a seriously good feeling Rob is going to do the business next year!

All of this is free, unless you want to pay for Seb Coe's limo to the event. You can do this if you would like to sit at the finish line.

Mens 20k walk is on the evening before the womens marathon the 4th and 5th Aug, ideal time to visit if you don't have tickets. Mens 100m final is on after the walk, we'll need to find a pub to watch that in!

A medal for Paula or a medal for Rob, can't decide which i'd prefer to see tbh.

Pisco Sour

Brianderunner wrote: »

A medal for Paula or a medal for Rob, can't decide which i'd prefer to see tbh.

Ah it's a no contest. As much as I would love to see Paula medal, it would not come anywhere close to wanting to see that tricolour hoisted in the Olympic Stadium.

Brianderunner

04072511 wrote: »

Ah it's a no contest. As much as I would love to see Paula medal, it would not come anywhere close to wanting to see that tricolour hoisted in the Olympic Stadium.

But Radcliffe medalling would be like El Guerrouj winning in Athens. The right result for the sport and justice finally served. She'll be the best supported competitor in the whole games i think.

I can honestly say that i was happier when El G won in Athens than when Cian O'Connor won gold a few days later (doping aside). Meant so much more to me as an athletics fan than a show jumper i'd never heard of.

Pisco Sour

Brianderunner wrote: »

But Radcliffe medalling would be like El Guerrouj winning in Athens. The right result for the sport and justice finally served. She'll be the best supported competitor in the whole games i think.

I can honestly say that i was happier when El G won in Athens than when Cian O'Connor won gold a few days later (doping aside). Meant so much more to me as an athletics fan than a show jumper i'd never heard of.

I agree it would be justice for a great career and I really want to see her medal (I dont think she will). I understand your point in relation to El G over Cian O'Connor (I'd still pick the Irish in any sport over my favourite foreign athletes like Allyson Felix and Blanca Vlasic), but we are talking here about Rob Heffernan, a competitor in our own sport. He's been at it for so long and has been getting closer and closer, and after his two 4th places and the tragic loss of his mother just before Daegu, I think a medal in London would be the right result, in a different sort of way.

G-Money

I was thinking of booking the Thursday to Monday and catching the Men's marathon on the Sunday. Checked Aer Lingus last night and there are some very cheap flights on those dates.

Can't remember what other events are on around then.

I haven't looked at accomodation yet.

Brianderunner

I see ryanair have flights up now for the olympics. Not cheap as expected. Looking at about €130 return at the least.

G-Money

Just managed to get a ticket through this site:

http://os2012.atpi.nl/nl.php

It's Dutch but you can use the Google translate functionality in the google toolbar in IE or the automatic translate in Google Chrome to work your way through it. The English link doesn't seem to work.

Pisco Sour

G-Money wrote: »

Just managed to get a ticket through this site:

http://os2012.atpi.nl/nl.php

It's Dutch but you can use the Google translate functionality in the google toolbar in IE or the automatic translate in Google Chrome to work your way through it. The English link doesn't seem to work.

What ticket did you get? You sure it's legit?

G-Money

04072511 wrote: »

What ticket did you get? You sure it's legit?

I got an evening session ticket for the 8th of August. Pretty sure it's legit, it was James Pearce the BBC sports reporter who sent out the link and I also checked the website address (http://www.atpi.nl) on the London site checker and it's an official reseller.

Pisco Sour

G-Money wrote: »

I got an evening session ticket for the 8th of August. Pretty sure it's legit, it was James Pearce the BBC sports reporter who sent out the link and I also checked the website address (http://www.atpi.nl) on the London site checker and it's an official reseller.

I'm getting lost on the site. Can you put up a quick step by step on how to book a ticket?

G-Money

04072511 wrote: »

I'm getting lost on the site. Can you put up a quick step by step on how to book a ticket?

1. Go to http://os2012.atpi.nl/nl.php
2. Click on "Klik hier om naar de webshop te gaan." = "Click here to go to the shop"
3. Click on "Klik hier om naar de webshop te aan." = "Click here to go to the webshop"
4. Fill in the information, you have to register here. It also asks for your passport number, name and expiry date. Click on "Verder" = "Further" when you've filled that out.
5. It should bring up a page now allowing you to look for the various sports and sessions.

I'd definitely suggest you use Google Chrome as it will automatically translate everything to English.

Brianderunner

04072511 wrote: »

I'm getting lost on the site. Can you put up a quick step by step on how to book a ticket?

I just signed up through Dutch. It's similar to German so i winged it. I have the option to buy athletics tickets now. 372 euro the cheapest for the Friday night? How badly do you want it?

Pisco Sour

How much did you pay?

The only tickets I'm seeing here are for over 300 euro a pop!

robinph

Not getting past the "Verder" button.

Pisco Sour

Brianderunner wrote: »

I just signed up through Dutch. It's similar to German so i winged it. I have the option to buy athletics tickets now. 372 euro the cheapest for the Friday night? How badly do you want it?

Almost twice as expensive as the entire World Championships in Daegu!!

No way can I afford that!

Brianderunner

04072511 wrote: »

Almost twice as expensive as the entire World Championships in Daegu!!

No way can I afford that!

Go in and have a look anyway, there's morning sessions and evening sessions and other sports aswell. Lets face it, their not selling on the cheap ones.

Robin; put n/a in the SSM number, it should work then.

Pisco Sour

The cheapest by a long way is the following for 125 euro plus the 30 euro booking fee.

Men's 5000m round 1
Men's Pole Vault qualifying
Decathlon 100m, long jump, shot put
Women's 800m round 1
Women's Hammer qualifying

That has to be the worst programme in the history of athletics!!!

robinph

Brianderunner wrote: »

Robin; put n/a in the SSM number, it should work then.

I think it was actually Google translate that was breaking it, it changed the "1" in the pull down lists to "A" so that then didn't work.

Got in now, not sure what to go for though, waiting on some confirmations from the US first. Think I may go for something like the pentathlon actually, get to see a few different things.

Everything else I might be interested in is too expensive for me to be wanting to make a rash choice on at the moment only to find that there is something better on the Red Button at the same time instead.

G-Money

I went for 1 evening session ticket which was €189, but there are stupid fee's on top of that so the total came to €283. I was going to go for another evening session at €189 but the total was over €500 and there's no way I'm willing to spend that for just two sessions. Decided to get one ticket and will see if I can get something for the 5000m which is later in the week.

I did have issues getting past the registration page with Google Chrome and IE, in the end I had to leave it as Dutch in IE and then the Verder/Further button worked. Don't know if that was a co-incidence. I did have another browser tab open with Google translate open on it to translate stuff I wasn't sure about.

Turns out it's just as well I didn't get tickets for earlier in the week. A cousin has her wedding on Sunday the 5th so it would have been a pain trying to go over for the 10,000m and getting back.

Brianderunner

G-Money wrote: »

I went for 1 evening session ticket which was €189, but there are stupid fee's on top of that so the total came to €283. I was going to go for another evening session at €189 but the total was over €500 and there's no way I'm willing to spend that for just two sessions. Decided to get one ticket and will see if I can get something for the 5000m which is later in the week.

I did have issues getting past the registration page with Google Chrome and IE, in the end I had to leave it as Dutch in IE and then the Verder/Further button worked. Don't know if that was a co-incidence. I did have another browser tab open with Google translate open on it to translate stuff I wasn't sure about.

Turns out it's just as well I didn't get tickets for earlier in the week. A cousin has her wedding on Sunday the 5th so it would have been a pain trying to go over for the 10,000m and getting back.

An extra 100 euro in fees, really? Thought it was an extra 30 or so?

G-Money

Brianderunner wrote: »

An extra 100 euro in fees, really? Thought it was an extra 30 or so?

Yeah there was some sort of admin fee plus an "outside the netherlands" fee.

robinph

They charged me €50 extra I think for not being Dutch, and then VAT as well.

I hesitated and missed out on 4 tickets for the Pentathlon, did manage to get 1 ticket for that though. Then just got some women's basketball session tickets as well, so at least will get into the Olympic Park now and see what's going on.

G-Money

robinph wrote: »

They charged me €50 extra I think for not being Dutch, and then VAT as well.

I hesitated and missed out on 4 tickets for the Pentathlon, did manage to get 1 ticket for that though. Then just got some women's basketball session tickets as well, so at least will get into the Olympic Park now and see what's going on.

Aye I missed out initially too, I had 1 ticket for the night of the men's 200m final and I dicked around and then it was sold out. At least I have a ticket now for one of the evening sessions. Would love to get a ticket for the men's 5000m also.

Brianderunner

G-Money wrote: »

Aye I missed out initially too, I had 1 ticket for the night of the men's 200m final and I dicked around and then it was sold out. At least I have a ticket now for one of the evening sessions. Would love to get a ticket for the men's 5000m also.

Got one for the mens 5k alright (a £50 one ), but the cost of these tickets was just too high. You could get a week at a major champs for the price of one ticket, not worth it. If i didnt have one now that might be different.

Beach volleyball is about the only other sport that appeals now the tennis and track cycling is sold out.

G-Money

Brianderunner wrote: »

Got one for the mens 5k alright (a £50 one ), but the cost of these tickets was just too high. You could get a week at a major champs for the price of one ticket, not worth it. If i didnt have one now that might be different.

Beach volleyball is about the only other sport that appeals now the tennis and track cycling is sold out.

You are lucky. I got nothing in the first round of sales and nothing in the second round of sales and I've missed out on all the other european sales to date. There were more expensive tickets available but I just wasn't willing to pay the money, especially when I will need to source accommodation for 3 or 4 days now.

Fancy selling that £50 ticket???

robinph

Thought I was onto a winner with the pentathlon as that would have then included a bit of horse riding to please the niece, and then running and shooting for my amusement. Also the seeing several events in one is good. Pissed off that I've now only got the one ticket for that so have to go on my own, it's the mens marathon before it though so will go see that then off to Greenwich.

Got the womens basketball just so that we had something in the main Olympic Park. Family coming all the way over from the US and until now I hadn't got any tickets for them for anything. Basketball will be interesting to watch anyway, and it doesn't really matter whos playing. Then spend the rest of the day wandering round the park taking it all in.

I very nearly just went and got a €375 ticket for the 100m, then I spotted it was for the ceremony and not the actual final so decided it wasn't actually worth it.

Pisco Sour

Brianderunner wrote: »

Beach volleyball is about the only other sport that appeals now the tennis and track cycling is sold out.

The World Track Cycling Championships are on here in Melbourne in April A hell of a lot cheaper also. Think I may pop along to that.

Must look into the Australian allocation of tickets and see if I can get anything through that. Unlike any of the ones in Europe, there will be no EU laws down here, so no people from abroad nicking the tickets If you have to be an Australian citizen to apply then I'll just get a mate to do it

EDIT: Maybe not

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/sport/unprecedented-demand-for-london-tickets-has-left-many-parents-with-nothing/story-e6frg7mf-1226073978562

robinph

...everyone wants to go to London which is almost like a home Olympics for Australians

What?

I know there is a lot of them over here, but did they build a secret tunnel through the earth to get here quicker or something?