Rest, Recovery and Relaxation

Flag Avenue is now full displaying the flag of every
competing nation

Still high on the emotions from last night, sleep didn’t quite happen until late but the 10am lie in made up for that. At monitoring our quarter-final oppositions were confirmed as local rivals Ireland and as you can imagined we were pumped about this. In the Athlete’s Village we share our block with Ireland and it’s quite funny how overnight they have gone from our flatmates to our rivals. But that is the joy of football.

Swimming pool fun times

No time to slow down and stop so it was off to the swimming pool we went this morning for a recovery session. Although there was no swimming pool on site, the Universiade organising party had a pool set aside a short drive from the Village for teams and athletes to use to aid their recovery. Arriving at the pool we were once again greeted with volunteers smiling and doing all they could to welcome us. It’s the simple things, such as one volunteer insisting she would show us to the changing room, to the toilets and the pool that exemplifies their desire to make this experience memorable for us. They don’t have to be here, they don’t have to give up their time, but every volunteer we have bumped into so far are the first people to smile and say hello and that simple act can brighten up your day. There is no value you can place upon these volunteers’ work, their importance is fundamental to the functioning of the Games and when they insist on having numerous photos taken with you, you can’t help but oblige, it’s the least we can do to say thank you. 

The splash from my winning starfish belly flop!

The pool session was beneficial and my childish side emerged when given 10 minutes at the end for free time. Soon Izzy, Aileen and I were diving in, having races and seeing who could do the best starfish belly flop. I would like to say I think I may have won and the pain of slapping that water was definitely worth it.

Back to the village we returned for an afternoon of downtime. A movie afternoon served up a treat with ‘Matilda’, a childhood classic and one that just can’t be beaten. Followed by a trip to tennis which unfortunately had finish for the day but the discovery of a few tennis balls on

My failed attempt at trying to retrieve the
tennis ball I kicked into the flower basket!

our walk home provided us with some afternoon entertainment. Arriving back at the apartment we found a few of the girls (and staff, no names mentioned) indulging in a game of Corridor Cricket. It’s surprising what you can do with some foam rollers, Giant Jenga blocks and duct tape. One would say that was a demonstration of creativity at its best… who needs computer games anyway, we could teach the kids of today a thing or two about entertainment!

After dinner we paid a trip to the ‘Lounge Zone’ where, for a few days, they were providing postcards which athletes can write, and send home free of charge! I dread to know how much this is costing them, but as I posted my few, I saw postcards for China, America and beyond. I hope this arrives as a nice little surprise to those at home, however writing about them on here pretty much gives away that surprise! O well it’s the thought that counts :)

Writing postcards home. One of the many treats
Kazan has put on for us athletes.

At 9:30pm the whole of Team GBR congregated in the HQ and made their way to the bottom of the International Centre for a team photo. Walking across it was like a sea of red as over 150 athletes, coaches and team staff made their way to the photo place. The bonus of this also meant I got to see two of my friends, Katie Mason and Deb Fleming who had arrived yesterday and were competing on behalf of Team GBR in the Rugby 7s tournament. There’s nothing like a seeing a familiar friendly face in a foreign country to make you feel like you’re at home.

Bed time soon followed with our sights firmly set on tomorrow’s quarter-final, another opportunity to continue our quest for gold. I hope that by this time tomorrow I will be writing about another successful Team GBR victory, our future in the competition is in our hands and we can wait to get stuck in.

Corridor Cricket in action

With the volunteers from the Swimming Pool. These guys make the
Kazan 2013 Universiade Games possible