2012 saw the Olympics held in London, UK. I was lucky to secure some tickets for the final night of athletics in the Olympic Stadium.
These are a few of my images from that night, all taken from in and around our seats near the olympic flame on the track corner immediately following the start finish line.
Heat rising above the incredible structure that held the Olympic flame - designed by Thomas Heatherwick. Each of the 204 copper "petals" represented a competing nation at the event. As such, at the opening ceremony each nation carried in their own petal, and they were assembled and drawn together to form this remarkable centrepiece to the stadium.
This shot was taken in the closing stages of the 5000m final, when Farah added to his 10,000m victory by adding gold again, roared on by the incredible and wonderfully biased home crowd. Mo ran a clever race, keeping a close eye on his key rivals before simply blowing them away in the final lap.
Mo Farah's now iconic celebration after securing the gold, his American competitor perhaps not overly impressed.
As the title suggests, this happy shot is taken during Brigetta Barrett's lap of honour after her silver medal winning high jump.
In contrast to the previous image of joy. Trell Kimmons and Ryan Bailey from the USA 4 x 100m relay team cannot hide their disappointment despite securing a silver medal. The USA team missed out on gold which was secured by the Jamaican team anchored by Usain Bolt. The Jamaican time of 36.84 seconds was a new world record. I understand years after this image was taken the USA sprinters were stripped of their silver medal as a result of a drug test anomaly from one of the squad.
Taken immediately after the end of the world record and gold medal winning 4 x 100m final, and just before i was sent back to my seat by the stadium stewards, this image and the next one capture the well documented moment when the officials tried to take the winning baton from Usain Bolt.
It was apparently prised away from him after a few moments, but the officials are reported to have eventually relented and returned his golden souvenir.
… baton negotiations ongoing …..
