Live from the Jubilee River Thing - Daily Telegraph Blogs
A special day, but a familiar atmosphere
Standing in the rain at Vauxhall, wearing the traditional British summer gear of waterproof trousers and a cagoule. Thousands of Queen masks in evidence. When Her Majesty comes past that will presumably feel very strange, as though she's in her own version of Being John Malkovich.
Also: will she have to wear a waterproof poncho? Or a life jacket? Or are members of the Royal family exempt from health and safety legislation?
Atmosphere is the familiar one of grim English determination to have a good time in spite of all obstacles. Cold, rain, and an impenetrable wall of umbrellas between oneself and the thing one is trying to see will not get in the way.
Shall stop now before my iPhone shorts out in the damp. More updates when Her Damp Britannic Majesty approaches.
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Rumours of boats sighted at Vauxhall turned out to be a police dinghy. Crowd's halfhearted effort to go wild is stillborn. Slightly more enthusiastic response for an RNLI lifeboat.
People down here on the ground getting resentful of the people in the tower blocks, who presumably have not been standing for five hours and can occasionally go and get a cup of tea.
The woman swigging amaretto has drained her bottle. Whether she can keep it down remains to be seen…
Oh here they are. A somewhat ugly tug is pushing a barge full of bellringers, then the rest turn up in earnest. Woo hoo etc. Lots and lots of rowing boats in the colours of the commonwealth countries. Rather lovely really.
London 2012: Rebecca Adlington receives abusive message on Twitter - The Guardian
Rebecca Adlington has been receiving abusive messages on Twitter after revealing "nasty comments" meant the double Olympic champion would be using it sparingly during London 2012.
The 23-year-old was catapulted into the public eye after her triumphs in the 400 metres and 800m freestyle in Beijing, with the Mansfield-born swimmer feted on her return to Great Britain.
However, not everybody was so pleased – something she discovered the painful way. Now she does not read on-line interviews she has given and neither will she be using Twitter as much during the London Olympic Games.
On Sunday Adlington pasted a message that has been sent to her on Twitter, prefacing it with: "I had a perfect example of what has been said in the papers this week tweeted to me this morning. I apologise for the swearing when I RT it!"
She then posted: "How lovely is this person…" before retweeting a message to her which read: "@BeckAdlington you shark fin nosed d*******, you belong in that pool you f****** whale."
Adlington quickly received support from many of her Great Britain team‑mates. The former world 100m freestyle silver medallist Fran Halsall tweeted: "what a small insignificant life that person must lead", echoed by the former double Commonwealth champion Caitlin McClatchey, who wrote: "his parents must be so proud to have raised such a pathetic idiot! Well done for ur amazing 800 hun BOOM! Good luck today xx"
The Olympic open water bronze medallist Cassie Patten addressed the perpetrator directly, saying: "It must be hard for you, you obviously have achieved nothing in your life, as you feel the need to Insult @BeckAdlington."
It all follows the revelation by Adlington to a number of reporters that she has been subject to abuse on Twitter as well as negative comments online. She had said: "I love the block button on Twitter. I don't know how people expect to send a nasty comment and not get blocked.
"With Twitter I think it's one of those things if you like it like Liam [Tancock] who is on it every two minutes – 'just having my lunch, just doing this' – he loves it, he is like that in real life. Whereas I am on Twitter every now and again, I tweet here and there but not every day all the time.
"I think I will be going on every now and again but I won't be checking it.
"I want to stay focused – obviously the messages of support are absolutely amazing and I love reading all of those but you have got the chance of somebody saying something just to annoy you and you don't want that added stress. For myself, I think I'll tweet once it's over."
She added: "I used to [read articles] when it first happened but I am one of those people who then scroll down to the bottom and read the comments and I learned very quickly not to do that. Because it is awful and I get angry: even if there are 10 nice comments you always get one idiot.
"It makes you angry and frustrated. I've now given up because it upsets me or makes me angry."
London 2012 round-up: Beth Tweddle bounces back on bars - Daily Mirror
Beth Tweddle took another step towards London 2012 with gold on the uneven bars in the second Olympic trial event at Pipers Vale, Ipswich.
It caps a successful return for the three-time world champion after missing the European Championships last month following knee surgery.
Briton Jenni Pinches won the vault final ahead of Finland’s Annika Uvikko and team-mate Niamh Rippin, while Jocelyn Hunt led the way in the floor final and also came second on the beam behind Spain’s Ana Maria Izurieta.
In trampolining, Kat Driscoll won the North West Gala in Liverpool, which also acted as an Olympic trial.
***
Great Britain missed out on a hockey medal at the Sultan Azlan Shan Cup yesterday as they lost 3-1 against India in the bronze-medal match in Malaysia.
Ashley Jackson opened the scoring as GB led at the interval but India hit back after the break with goals from Shivandra Singh, Sandeep Singh and Tushar Khandker.
Jackson was also on target on Saturday as GB beat Pakistan 2-1 in their final group game.
Head coach Jason Lee said: “There are plenty of positives to take out of this week.”
Manager Andy Halliday added: “It’s disappointing to finish just outside the medal places. We now need to work hard ahead of the Olympics.’’
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