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Published: August 13th 2017
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Oceania Area lunch What an exciting and busy few days have we had!! With the athletics events on every night and catching up with people during each day we have hardly stopped. Again I will try and sum up what has happened in each sphere.
Firstly the Athletics. These Championships have produced some outstanding results and unexpected happenings. Some highlights for me have been the Australian performances. Kurtis Marschall, at only 20 years of age, placed 7th in the Pole Vault final. This competition was fascinating with several athletes passing to gain advantage and the American Sam Hendricks eventually the winner. Brooke Stratton, in the women's long jump final, jumped very consistently and was 6th in the world! And the final high spot came last night when Sally Pearson, coming back from breaking her wrist very badly, won gold in the 100m hurdles. She was dominant in the heats and blitzed them in the final. How wonderful to be able to sing Advance Australia Fair and celebrate her gold medal!! Of course, there were also lows. The women's steeplechase provided an upset when the leading Kenyan runner forgot to go over the waterjump after the first lap and lost valuable ground after retracing
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Lunch at Davy's her steps. Then last night, how sad to see the great Usain Bolt, while running the last leg of the relay for Jamaica, fall with cramp and not complete the race. For the British, Mo Farrer coming second in the 5000m also was a great disappointment. But this is athletics and strange things can happen. We have now only one night left but it has been a magnificent competition with fantastic crowds and great performances.
On the social side, we have also been busy. On Wednesday we had lunch with Lawrie and Gwen Robertson whom we had met in Eugene and we had hosted in April. They also had Julie, a former partner of Peter Thompson and another friend, Kathy with them. We walked across the bridge and had a great lunch at the Tea Merchant. Peter joined us later. Then on Thursday, Oceania Aths Association hosted their Area lunch at Davy's at Canary Wharf. This was a great lunch with Peter and Penny Deane joining us. We sat at a table with several fellow officials and listened to a great speech from Seb Coe who is a great friend of Oceania.Dennis Wilson was also honoured with Life Membership
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Fletcher and Geoff Frayne of OAA. When that finished about 1-30pm the Deanes and we caught the DLR to Holborn and then walked to Australia House on the Strand for a reception put on by the Australian High Commission. Most of the Australian team was there and we caught up with Anna and Geoff Frayne as well as many other South Australians. Alexander Downer spoke well and there was delicious wine and food (even though I was still full from lunch). The building is magnificent and it was a privilege to be invited to attend.On Friday we decided to stay in the hotel and watch the morning session on TV. We then went to The Sipping Room, which is close by, for a quiet lunch. For the first time, the sun was out and we sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine. On Saturday we decided to be more touristy so went into the centre of London. We emerged from Oxford Circus Tube station and walked along Regent Street. We had lunch in Jamie's Italian in Picadilly where the prawn linguine was a winner. We then strolled through Soho, Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, along the Strand down to Charing Cross. This is London for me
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The Australian team at Australia House and though we didn't do much, at least I felt I had been here.
Today will be a packing and catch up day as tomorrow we are on a 6 am bus to go to the airport for the next phase of our trip. We catch a plane for Dublin at 10-30am. I am looking forward to returning to Ireland and spending a week in the place from whence some of my ancestors came.
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