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| Sir Chris Hoy with that magical sixth gold medal |
As there were three gold medals on offer – and a chance of British
success in all three – the ONS team drafted in extra pairs of hands to make
sure we got quotes from all the medallists.
At the daily briefing we were assigned our athletes. You can
imagine my joy when I saw the following on the whiteboard: ‘Keirin. Gold. SP’.
That meant, if all went to plan, I would be chasing Sir Chris Hoy around the
mixed zone after winning an historic sixth gold medal. Blimey.
It was also good news as, according to the running order,
the Men’s Keirin final was going to be last meaning I could watch all the other
events before I had to do my bit.
The velodrome was heaving. Even the corporate seats were
full for the first time, populated sporadically over the opening hour by
Princess Anne, Boris, Sarah Ferguson and Seb Coe. Anyone who was anyone clearly
wanted a piece of this action.
It started with a whimper. Needing to beat Sarah Hammer of
USA in the Omnium Scratch Race, Laura Trott could only manage third behind
Hammer, the winner of the race. That meant she would need a massive win in the
final event, the 500m time trial.
Punctuating all that Sir Chris Hoy moved seamlessly into the
Keirin final and Victoria Pendleton into the Women’s Sprint final, setting up a
final race against her nemesis, Anna Mears of Australia.
Laura got things off to a great start, winning the time
trial and ousting Hammer down to fourth, enough for the gold medal. The place
erupted, Trott burst into tears, we all whooped with joy.
Then came the first round of the sprint. Vicky won, but was
demoted for riding outside of the sprinters line. The crowd were not happy, and
with good reason – Mears appeared to elbow her in the side, causing the swerve.
Mears went on to take the second round and, with it, Pendleton’s last hurrah.
It was left to Sir Chris to end this amazing six days as it
had begun: with a Hoy victory. He didn’t disappoint. Seemingly about to be
edged out, he found an extra turn of pace and took the gold.
At this point I positioned myself in the broadcast pen ready
for his interview. He did a brief interview which I couldn’t hear. Following
the medal ceremony I went back to the BBC pen as apparently they were doing
another interview.
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| Sir Steve, Sir Chris - and my right shoulder! |
That’s odd, I thought, they don’t normally do that. I was
also confused by the guy that had now appeared in the BBC pen kneeling down.
Frustratingly for me he was in my way, blocking my route to the camera. Just as
I was about to enquire what he was doing I realised: it was Sir Steve Redgrave waiting to surprise Sir Chris in a second interview!
Again, I couldn’t get the quotes because of the noise (the
Women’s Sprint medal ceremony was taking place) so retired to the agency pen.
It took Sir Chris a good 30mins to reach us as he had to stop at 20 or so
broadcasters and do interviews.
Whilst we were waiting Victoria Pendleton came through. She
was distraught and in tears, but still managed to give us an interview. I will keep
that interview on my Dictaphone as, in a way, it is a piece of history: her last
post-race interview with the press.
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| Sir Chris doing one of his many broadcast interviews |
Finally, we got Sir Chris. He is such a gent and answered
all our questions – despite being asked them all repeatedly for the past 30
mins. I then went back and filed his quotes onto the system and that was it –
the velodrome was over.
I am sad it is over but, in all honestly, six days is enough
in such a controlled, stressful environment. One hack described the mixed zone in
the velodrome as a shantytown and I know exactly what he means.
I now move onto BMX today which should be great: we are outdoors,
the sport is different and the riders are genuine characters.
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