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The whitewater canoeing facility at Vaires-sur-Marne is
very out of the way. Just to get to the station where the shuttles leave, you
have to take two transports and it takes more than an hour. Once at the station,
however, the volunteers immediately indicate the departure of the shuttles:
there are many available and there is no queue. The journey takes about fifteen
minutes, but when we arrive in sight of the grandstands we get stuck on a
bridge for another ten or so, then, after a few metres, they let us off. To get
to the entrance there is a path: at the gates there is a bit of a queue, but in
five minutes we get in.
In the end it took just under two hours to get
there. So I wonder at what time I will have to leave to go and watch the
rowing, in the facility immediately after this one, which starts at 9.30 am. I
certainly won't follow the suggestion of arriving an hour and a half earlier,
it will be enough to arrive for the start of the first race. Now, meanwhile, it's
45 minutes to the start: it remains to get food. Unlike yesterday, there are
kiosks that sell more than just snacks, but still cold food: I take a sandwich and
a packet of biscuits. While I am in the queue, I see that the stands are still
more than half empty. The queue lasts about twenty minutes: before going up to
the grandstands, there is a stop in the toilet. The toilets are gender-neutral: I think
it is the most logical thing, since you go in one at a time anyway, but it
seems strange to queue together with women.
In addition to the local fans, including one
with a cockerel on his hat, I saw Spaniards, including two (males) in tutus,
Slovenians, Slovaks, a group of German-speaking Italians (the Italian in the
race is Stephanie Horn from South Tyrol) and even two in Argentine rugby
uniforms (there are no Argentines in the race). On the stands, however, after
the French, the flags that will be seen most will be the German ones and the
yellow and green of Australia will also be seen a lot (the favourite, Jessica
Fox, is Australian).
Climbing into the grandstand, I discover that
my row is the last. My seat is the only one free, but in other sectors, more
towards the finish, there will be empty spaces. I have a nice surprise: I can
see the whole course! I was expecting something similar to an alpine skiing or
luge race, where you only see a small part of the race live. Next to me is a
group of Australians: among them is an elderly gentleman who speaks Italian,
who in the break tells me about his experience at the opening ceremony: 2,700
euro to see very little, since the show that was supposed to take place in his
area was cancelled due to bad weather, and a mobile phone to throw away, ruined
by the rain. On the other side, in the next sector, another group of
Australians, including one with an inflatable kangaroo.
They start: the first, a Canadian, is
immediately seen to be struggling a lot. The second, a Japanese, can be seen to
be doing better, but I didn't think so much:13 seconds. The third and the fourth,
respectively a Chinese and an Algerian, improve again: compared to those who
had preceded them, they seemed so good, but even theirs are modest results,
which will not be enough to enter the finals (they qualify in 12 out of 22).
Especially at the beginning, I find it hard to understand how the competitors
are doing: only after a while do I realise that there are three intermediate
times (at the beginning I thought there was only one), but one either watches
the race or looks at the time, I don't know if there was a single run where I saw all three. Instead, I realise quite often that I am in front of one
of the decisive passages: two almost parallel gates, one of which is uphill. To prepare for the second one, they all pass the first one
backwards: the difficult thing is just not to go too far down so as not to have
to go too much uphill. In the second run, one will miss the door just in
front of me and I won't notice, even though I had seen that she had problems.
The break between the two runs is just over an
hour. Since the place is very high up and then I would have to climb back up, I
wonder for a moment if it is necessary to go down, but the answer is yes,
because I really must get a drink. It is really hot, the contrast with
yesterday is enormous: good thing I have my hat and sunscreen. Very few stay in
the stands, almost everyone goes to the kiosks, so much so that the interval is
almost all spent there. However, I return with about ten minutes to spare, just
enough time to hear my neighbour's account of the opening ceremony.
They start off again: of the first four no one
makes a great race, one even misses a gate. Fox arrives, however, and it's a
different story: halfway through the race she already has a 3” lead, finishes
more than 5” ahead of the second and is more than 3” better than the best of
the first run. Every gate is greeted with a roar; you won't hear a cheer like
that for the Frenchwoman either. Even those after her do nothing exceptional,
they all stay above 100 seconds (in the first run three had gone under). It is
Horn's turn: she gets off to a good start, at the halfway point she is just
over a second and a half behind the Australian. She is on her way to go under 100
seconds, I think if she makes it she can dream of a medal, but in the last few
gates she struggles, looks tired and finishes third, over 101 seconds. The
medal is now impossible: there are three of them left and they can't all fail.
In fact, the Briton who goes down immediately afterwards comes in second.
It's the Polish girl's turn, which frightens my Australian neighbour a little (not the elderly gentleman, a boy), who says he can sing the Polish anthem just in case, he knows the words. In the end, however, it remains more than a second away. Only the German is left: halfway through the race she is behind and you can see that it will be difficult for her, but in the second half you can see her hit a gate. Already a two-second penalty would have marked the end of her hopes, but the seconds are 50: the gate is missed. She thus finishes 11th, ahead of only the other who had missed a gate, and Horn is 5th. Fourth place may have been within her grasp, but the top three were too far away.
Like most spectators, I leave right after the
end, not stopping for the mini-victory ceremony(which can't even be called a flower
ceremony, as they don't give flowers). The exit is very orderly: the stewards
indicate the directions for the two shuttles (there is also one for another
station), on my side the queue is long, you have to make a serpentine, but
there are plenty of shuttles available and it is quickly disposed of. I have
taken many shuttles for sporting events, and I don't think I have ever seen one
so well organised.
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