Bipolar Weather Alert

6^th July 2013

The day after a game is always a chance to rest and recover but as our next game was only one day away there wasn’t too much time to sit back and relax. An early morning training session was scheduled as an opportunity to get some blood flowing through our legs and aid part of our recovery. Onto the bus we boarded, as we have done every other time, but today was a little different. Driving out of the village, the streets and roads were lined with local people waving flags and smiling. We soon realised that today, the 6^th July, was the day that the Universiade torch relay entered its final stage and arrived at the village ahead of lighting the Fire Bowl at the opening ceremony later that evening. Similar to the Olympic torch relay which took place for London 2012, the main symbol of the 27^th World University Games, travelled 359 days, across 5 continents, starting in Paris arrived in Kazan today.

All of the local people who had come out to watch this torch arrived further emphasised the magnitude of the Universiade and how the people of Kazan reflected pride and honour at having the opportunity to host the Games. It was a shame we missed its arrival, but to see all of the local people waving at us, smiling to see our bus drive past, bought about a sense of joy that we were able to play a part in this occasion.

Training through the tropical thunderstorm 

And so onto training was drove and the arrival of Russian’s bipolar weather became evident. We started the session, iced sweat bands on, cap out and water bottles at the ready, then half way through the session things changed. Suddenly a tropical thunderstorm appeared, lightening and rain poured down but in the most unconventional fashion. Looking up the sky was clear, no rain clouds in sight yet the rain poured, and poured, soaking us all that it became so heavy we had to take cover inside. To be fair I think we all welcomed the rain to cool us down a bit; it’s just strange how it changed so quickly from beaming sunlight to a tropical storm!

We had the afternoon off to relax and spent part of it watching the badminton competition. To say there was some quality tekkers on show would be an understatement, some of the countries competing were unreal and without a doubt potential winners of the competition. 

Watching the badminton with the girls

As most of Team GBR was off to the Opening Ceremony this evening our apartment block was strangely quiet. With tomorrow’s game ever approaching the decision was made as a whole not to attend the ceremony due to the lateness of it; as much as a shame this was we were glad that we were able to tune in online to see it and Kazan did not disappoint. The Opening Ceremony made for a great night’s viewing and we were glad we could still be part of it from the comfort of our apartment block. However with games such as ‘Giant Jenga’ also available we managed to keep ourselves busy… who knew you could be some entertained with some wooden blocks!

Reverting to old school 'Giant Jenga' to keep up entertained

An early night followed as we all look ahead towards tomorrow’s game vs Japan which will no doubt be a challenge but one we are confident going into. We know we have the potential and ability to go on and win gold in this tournament and tomorrow’s game is crucial in ensuring we qualify from our group and move onto the knockout stages of the tournament. At the moment qualification is in our hands and that’s the way we want it to stay!

Team GBR on their way to the Opening Ceremony... Can you see me and Naomi managed to sneak in at the back!