Ha! Try playing without a ball (Photo: GETTY IMAGES)
Officials behind the loud, pumping music and enthusiastic commentary at the London Olympic beach volleyball test event at Horse Guards Parade this week have been told to turn it down, because the Prime Minister David Cameron and other parliamentarians were being distracted while they dealt with riot-related emergency meetings.
The ear-splitting bass undertones of the latest hip hop artists are not for Cam and co.
The music had been lower than what it will be during the Games, but was further muted during political press conferences and meetings, held just 250 yards away.
During the Olympic Games the beach volleyball footprint will be 10 times larger and organisers are planning dancers, glitz and more razzamattaz so that it transforms from a stately urban area to a beachy feel.
Rioters will not work on Games security
It seems a no-brainer, but the Home Office has formally ruled out hiring any of the people associated with the riots across England for the London Olympic Games.
Technically those convicted could have taken part in a scheme called Bridging the Gap, designed to help young people re-train for a career in the security industry.
”To work at the Games in 2012 will be a privilege, those convicted of being involved in the recent disturbances will not be able to take advantage of such a privilege,” the Home Office said.
Olympic sponsor G4S needs 8,000 to 10,000 over-18s from the scheme to be hired as security guards inside Olympic venues.
Locog has helped cut through red tape and any need for a security licence with a licence exemption to apply from March 2012 to October 2012.
Insiders say the vetting of these security officials will be intense, rigorous and conducted by the Met Police.
Robertson reflects on star turn at Horse Guards
Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson was reflective at the beach volleyball and his thoughts weren’t on the advertising of a betting agency on the backsides of the British pair Shauna Mullin and Zara Dumpney.
Instead he mused about his army duties during the 1993 Queen’s Birthday parade at Horse Guards. Robertson said he still remembered the instructions ”Turn left at the third pane when you come around by the windows.”
Locog sticking with triathlon course
London 2012 Olympic Games organisers have no plans to change the twisting, uneven run leg of the triathlon next year despite complaints from triathletes about a poor course at the Olympic test event last weekend.
World champion Jan Frodeno was philosophical about the final leg, the 10km course through Hyde Park, which he described as a cross country romp because he often trains in nearby forests to his German hometown.
But current women’s world champion Emma Snowsill was scathing, saying it was not fit for an Olympics.
The issue was the constantly changing surface conditions from tarred road, to pebbled tar to boards and even carpet.
But women’s victor British star Helen Jenkins said: “It won’t be changing so I have to get used to it”.
For Jenkins, the biggest issue was the swim leg and the congestion at the first buoy turn in the Serpentine because it was situated so soon after the start.
”I was one of the girls popping up (after being swum over at the buoy turn), I have to work on my swim start,” she said.
Badminton stars walk through Downing Street
Over at the badminton World Championships, doubling as an Olympic test event, players have been entering through a mock 10 Downing Street facade giving the impression that parliament was still in session when , at least for the first few days, the Prime Minister was sipping espressos on holiday in Italy.
The facade will be a London double decker bus at the weekend.
Cable car gets go-ahead
Construction has started on the Thames cable car linking the Royal Docks to the Greenwich peninsular, despite earlier concerns that the £50million project would impact on the operations of the nearby London City airport.
Towers up to 85m high will keep the 34 gondolas more than 50m above the Thames.
Around 2,500 passengers will be able to use the cable car every hour.
The big question still remains whether the project will finish on time for the start of the Olympic Games to help ferry spectators to basketball finals and gymnastics at the O2, renamed the North Greenwich arena.
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