Whether it’s Tom Daley diving at the pool or Bradley Wiggins’ exploits on the road in the cycling time trial, minority sports suddenly become a national event. People across the nation gather around office televisions or turn up the radio to distract themselves with afternoons full of sporting action.
Having managed to grab some tickets on the London 2012 website a couple of weeks ago, I headed to Earl’s Court to see Team GB’s men’s volleyball side in action.
Talk of long queues and difficult security proved to be mere scaremongering as everyone breezed past the guards, armed forces and police and into the venue. The only thing that came close to a crime was the daylight robbery of charging £2.30 for a bottle of Coca-Cola at the arena kiosks.
Clusters of people gathered to watch the action on big screens in the concourses before entering the vast arena ahead of GB’s clash with Australia.
The pre-match announcer asked the 15,000-strong crowd how many were about to see their first game of volleyball, with virtually everyone in the arena simultaneously admitting their lack of knowledge. A couple of videos on the big screens thankfully filled everyone in on the basics.
The only gaps in the crowd were in the corporate seats, but a surprise appearance by Olympic organiser Seb Coe saw volunteers hurriedly rush to move fans from the cheap seats and into the prime spots by the centre of the court.
So to the action and Team GB, competing in their first ever Olympic tournament, struggled against the dominant Aussie side. Despite the vocal support of the home crowd, they fell behind early in the first set and were unable to recover.
After a number of substitutions, GB’s performance improved dramatically in the second set, but again the Australian side powered through, capitalising on the numerous British unforced errors. The third set saw yet more improvement but by this stage the game was a lost cause, the Aussie’s eventually running out 3-0 winners.
A short interval was followed by a game between Brazil and Russia, but while the latter boasted a player 7’2″ tall, the silky skills of the Brazillian side were able to outmanoeuvre the power of the Russians.
Despite the time rapidly heading towards midnight, the crowd stayed gripped to the game until its completion. Even the temptation of an empty tube home couldn’t tear people away from the match, and rightly so.
