69. Diving - Synchronised 3m Springboard

Event: Diving - Synchronised 3m Springboard
Date: 11th November 2014
Location: Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre
Cost: £6.00
Rules: Diving is the sport of diving or falling into the water from a platform or springboard. It requires poise and courage. During the fall, athletes can perform a number of spins, flips and twists before hitting the water at speeds up to 55mph, with as little disturbance as possible. Each dive has an assigned degree of difficulty, upon which their score is based, along with the ease displayed by the athletes. The Springboards are 3 metres high, and their flexibility is fully adjustable. Synchronised competitions see pairs of divers try to coordinate dives with perfect coordination in take off, plunge and entry to the water. Women's pairs must complete five dives, with at least one dive from each category; Forward, Back, Reverse, Inward and Twisting.

The Event:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: He Zi and Wu Minxia, China

Comments:

Sarah: It was a bit easier doing the synchro dive compared to the individual, as I had less time to think about it. We just walked to the end, did a quick '3-2-1-go!' and I had to jump, or Ellie would have to do it all again, and would probably punch me for ditching her.  Again, I can't emphasise enough how scary it was to even step off the board. If you want to get all technical with us; this feet-first approach unbelievably counts as a proper dive.
 

Ellie: How amazing would it have been if there was a lovely video of us doing somersaults in synchronicity! Alas, it was not to be. It was just too scary. Thankfully, knowing that your partner was relying on you made it slightly easier - it would have been awful to have seen them jump in and be the one left on the springboard. This is not an event I'm happy to leave behind; not because I enjoyed it, quite the opposite actually - I want to conquer the feeling of fear. Maybe one day that video of flips and tucks will exist... probably not though...!

Bonus Event #2 - Curling

Event: Curling
Date: 8th November 2014
Location: Fenton's Curling Centre, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Cost: £20 per person - minimum of 8 people
Rules: A curling team consists of four athletes. One match consists of 10 'ends' or rounds of throws. The score for the end is determined when all 16 stones have been delivered. A team can have one or several stones closest to the centre and score; therefore one or several points  are available in each end. The team with the most points after all 10 ends have been completed, or after the opponent has conceded, is the winner.

Event:

Scores: 
Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 Winners: Canada
Sarah' Team: 2
Ellie' Team: 1

Comments:
Sarah: Some of the best events of our challenge have been the ones where we've roped in a bunch of friends to help us out. The team events always seem to bring out an excellent level of competition amongst us all. When we heard about Fenton's rink, we decided to book a Curling session as our first Winter Olympics event and second bonus sport, because why stop at a mere 114 events?! We were all a bit nervous about falling flat on our face as soon as we stepped onto the ice, but the shoes were magic, and we were soon running up and down chasing the stone. We had a brief introductory talk; how to sweep and curl the stone, but were quickly left too it, and we managed to squeeze in five games. We got to alternate between the bowler, sweepers and captain; who remains up in the end and is the only person who can sweep the other team's stone once it passes over a specific line within the house (target area). The most difficult element was trying to figure out how much pressure to put behind the stone when bowling; what felt like a comparable push sometimes sent the stone flying too far and out of play, and the next time it failed to even reach the score line. It was loads of fun though, and felt like we really progressed within the two hours. We were all getting carried away with yells of "SWEEP", "LEAVE IT", "SWEEP, SWEEP" by the end. I'd definitely go again!

Ellie: I think Curling was the sport I watched most from the Sochi Winter games and was certainly one that I wasn't very familiar with; to find that there was a purpose built rink within a few hours of Essex was very interesting. It was also heartening to find six other friends that were keen to give up a Saturday to come along and try it with us. The rules and principles of Curling seemed straightforward and we were able to have a rudimentary game after only a few pointers; but the technique and strategy was a bit more elusive! As Sarah says, getting the power levels right was really difficult and I also found that I accidentally spun my stone so it was often out of play before reaching the target. That being said, when one of us was able to get a stone to the scoring zone it was really exciting and there were some great scoring debates between teams - some of which I still dispute!! I'd be very happy to make the journey to Kent to try again in the future!

L-R: Claire, Greg, Sarah, Clare v Ellie, Laura, Simon, Carl

68. Diving - Individual 3m Springboard

Event: Diving - Individual 3m Springboard
Date: 11th November 2014
Location: Southend Leisure and Tennis Centre
Cost: £6.00
Rules: Diving is the sport of diving or falling into the water from a platform or springboard. It requires poise and courage. During the fall, athletes can perform a number of spins, flips and twists before hitting the water at speeds up to 55mph, with as little disturbance as possible. Each dive has an assigned degree of difficulty, upon which their score is based, along with the ease displayed by the athletes. The Springboards are 3 metres high, and their flexibility is fully adjustable. Women must compete five dives, with at least one dive from each category; Forward, Back, Reverse, Inward and Twisting.

The Event:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: Wu Minxia, China

Comments:

Sarah: This is one of the most terrifying things I've ever done. I'm a confident swimmer, have no fear of the water, or heights; but, standing up on the 3m board looking down into the water filled me with utter fear. The most annoying thing is; it looks really easy! It doesn't even look that high, does it? It really, really, is though! We went for two sessions, and I tried every trick I could think of to get me off the board- including building my confidence diving from the 1m springboards and even climbing to the top of the 10m Platform and looking down, in the hope that when returning to the 3m boards, the distance would seem nothing in comparison. Technically, the 'dive' I completed does qualify as a proper dive, but I'm so annoyed at myself for not being able to get over my mental block and force myself in arms-first. Look at Ellie though! It was incredible when she did it! Since we started our challenge, the most common response from people has been "what, even the 10m dive?!", and we've always replied "yes! of course!". I'm now on the side of the doubters about that event!
 

Ellie: The only way I could do this dive was to actually over-balance. I had to lean over until I fell off and then it was all okay. The hardest part of it was working up the courage to 'dive' off, once I was falling I felt quite safe. That all being said I couldn't go up and do it again. It's such an odd sensation - your brain is telling you to jump, that it's safe and you'll be fine but it was almost an uncontrollable physical reaction.
I'm sure if I'd been 20 years younger I'd have had no issues at all which is infuriating! Of all the sports I've had problems with this is the one I'd like to master... I definitely agree with Sarah though, I doubt I'll ever be able to overbalance myself off the 10m board.

67. 200m Butterfly

Event: 200m Butterfly
Date: 7th November 2014
Location: London Aquatics Centre, Stratford
Cost: £4.50
Rules: Competitors swim four lengths of butterfly as fast as possible. Athletes dive in, and some part of the swimmer must touch the wall at the end of each length and at the finish. Most will touch the wall and push off with their feet.

The Event:

 

Times:

Olympic Gold Medal London 2012: 2:04.06 - Jiao Liuyang, China.

Sarah: 8:52.08 

Ellie: 8:43.45

 

Comments:

Sarah: I wasn't looking forward to this one after struggling through the shorter distance a couple of weeks ago, but it turned out that the 200m is somehow easier than the 100m. I didn't feel the need to try and go flat-out, and there were even sections when it felt like I was doing something approaching Butterfly. It's such a complicated stroke, and I find I can only concentrate on either my arms, or legs, or breathing; thinking about the whole combination seems a bit beyond me for some reason. Only one more Fly event left now!
 

Ellie: Whatever I was doing, it probably couldn't be called Butterfly.

66. Pole Vault

Event: Pole Vault
Date: 19th October 2014
Location: Colchester Harriers, Arena Sports and Leisure Centre, Colchester 
Cost: Free
Rules: Competitors use a long and flexible pole as an aid to jump over a bar. Competitors plant their poles in a one-metre long box that is 60 cms wide at the front and 15 cms wide at the back. The crossbar is 4.5m wide. Once the vaulter leaves the ground he/she may not move their lower hand above their upper hand on the pole, nor move their upper hand higher on the pole. A successful vault is one in which the crossbar remains in place once the vaulter has left the landing area. Each athlete has three attempts at clearing each height and is eliminated if they fail to reach the height.

The Event:

Heights:

Sarah: 95cm: xxx

Ellie: 95cm: xxx

London 2012 Olympic Gold Medal: 4.75m - Jennifer Suhr, USA.

Comments:  

Sarah: Pole vault! One of the big ones, and one of the most technically difficult events we've tackled so far. I wasn't expecting the mental barrier of flinging myself forward, up and over the pole, and looking at the photos I clearly wasn't raising my knees high enough; meaning I jumped straight into the bar each time. Despite not being my most successful event, I really enjoyed learning how to hold the pole and the technicalities involved. Once again, we had some of the young Harriers helping us, and showing us how it should be done; putting our efforts to shame!  

Ellie: Argh! Never miss the opportunity to try Pole Vault - it was super-fun! Our Harriers coach started us with some exercises to get us used to holding and relying on the pole. These mostly saw me rolling around on the soggy ground but, once I had a run up marked out (a very short one which was pleasing) and knew how to hold the pole properly it became possible to feel how you might use it to lever yourself up and over - if never quite getting it right myself. I'd loved to have kept trying this one as I did feel that the bar was mine for the taking but it's such an exhausting sport that it was wise to stop when we did. My aching muscles the next day were proof of that. Again, this is an event I'm sad to see the back of but what an experience! 

Massive thanks to our coach, Chris, and to Ellie and Jess for their amazing demonstrations and enthusiasm. You can follow Colchester Harriers Athletics Club on Twitter - @ColchesterH