Awesome opening ceremony and the race course is set.

Our kiwi team at the opening ceremony


The colour lit fountains show


The fireworks at the opening ceremony.

2/8/06

Have had some really good sessions the last two days emphasising quality and not quantity. My muscles have felt really recovered and strong.

The opening ceremony last night was amazing. All the teams paraded one by one into this huge sort of palace full of people. They use this facility for big shows and concerts. A few boring speeches were followed by a incredible water and fireworks show. They started by showing a film onto a big wall of water fountains of how the sport has changed over the years, this was incredible how they did this. Some composers then played as a huge water display went on in front of us with changing lights and fountains of every type right in front of use. This was followed by a huge fireworks display with big flames of fire lighting up the all the pillars and historical buildings. It was like something I have never seen before – very cool: )

The course has been set. I had a quick look at it today before we have demo runs later on in the day. It has 4 big staggers moves. I feel as though the course organisers ran out of ideas and would have preferred a more open sort of course as I suit them better, but I guess it will be sweet.