2nd September 1991 Day 44

The Diary
Wandered down to the stadium to try to get a program and failed miserably. Sweated a lot though. Tried to go to the top of the Metropolitan Building but it was closed on Mondays. Bumped into Dave Barnett and he had some programs. Caught the Airport Limousine Bus which took the obligatory 2 hours to travel the 40 miles to the airport. Chatted about athletics with an American and Lisa Martin (Mrs Yobes Ondieki) who was sat in front of me with her baby daughter. Talked about Yobes' storming win.  At the airport saw Dave Buzza again (20th in the marathon). I think he was going to Australia too. Can't get away from him.

Phoned home and then headed for the plane. Another overnighter. Sitting down. Great for the back.


2011
Must have said goodbye to Bop sometime on this day. 

1st September 1991 Day 43

The Diary (this looks like a long entry)
David Coleman probably said "You can't ask for more than that" a lot on this day. Even if he didn't Graham and I did. We made a lot of Ron Pickering-isms and various other cliches but unlike the Americans we didn't need to stay focussed. It all came naturally. We also discovered today that Coleman and Stuart Storey  are the BBC Sport porn kings - a little inside info from Ian our freelance vision mixer.


Japan won the marathon. I think the other countries agreed to let them have a token win and also decided it had to be the ugliest person at the games (give or take a few of the women discus throwers - and Sally Gunnell). Dalton Grant broke the British record in the high jump and only missed a medal on count back. "You can't ask for more than that". Yates was crap in the 1500. Merlene Ottey finally got a gold medal in the 4x100m as Krabbe's halo slipped a little and the German's botched the last change. No vorsprung durch technik this time. The British men's 4x100m team got a bronze but no-one was going to beat the US team that included the 3 fastest men of all time. New world record. "You can't ask for more than that".


Yobes pissed on everyone in the 5000m. The women's 4x400m team came fourth and broke the British record again. "You can't ask for more than that". Well, you could, how about a face lift for Sally Gunnell (or a medal). 

And then, the one we'd been waiting for. Regis was in and for some reason Black was running the first leg. It all went perfectly. In the lead after the first leg and then always on the Americans' shoulders. Everett couldn't shake Regis and Bop screamed "we're still there, we're still there". The British contingent was going absolutely apeshit. The last leg and it was Akabusi against Pettigrew. Akabusi stayed within inches of Pettigrew's shoulder and then passed him with about 50m left. The Brits were hysterical and I think the rest of Europe was cheering. Pettigrew couldn't fight back and we stormed in with a new British record. Even the French cheered.  "You can't ask for more than that". On a par with David Platt's goal. We had the best lap of honour of the games and they followed this up with the only lap of honour after a medal ceremony. 

In the morning a British supporter's team had lost the park relay to an American supporter's team. We said it didn't matter because we would win the 4x400m. They laughed. They must be laughing on the other side of their faces now. Maybe they didn't stay focussed or maybe Pettigrew was distracted by a camera lens (the worst excuse ever).

British Supporter's team

The 4x400m team had smashed the British record again. "You can't ask for more than that". Everyone wanted to know two things a) what were the splits and b) what had David Coleman been saying ? "Britain take gold" perhaps or how about "1-0". I bet he set a new PB for the greatest number of verbal cock-ups in 2:57.53. and probably "You can't ask for more than that". etc.


The closing ceremony was far better than the Italian's dismal effort in 1987 and the athletes ran amok. The British flag was first round the track - just where it should be all the time.

And so to the evening. Six of us went out to celebrate and headed back to the bar where Glenn had done his initial rendition of My Way. Unfortunately we were remembered. Just to show how confusing Tokyo is, it was at this point that we realised that the other karaoke bar we'd been in was directly opposite. We thought it was hundreds of yards away. Glenn was soon on stage, this time murdering The Beatles. At least the Japanese had an equally bad singer with them this time. By the end of the evening Graham had duetted on Jumpin' Jack Flash with Glenn and then, Graham, Andy Elleker (who Glenn introduced as the man who wrote The Beatles' songs) and I did a rip-roaring version of Yellow Submarine as an encore. 

It was all over.


I almost forgot the Aussie girl who wanted my address. Pity she asked Barry the rep rather than asking me directly. 


2011
David Platt's goal - ok, this is the real goal.


It's worth mentioning that years later Pettigrew, the individual 400m gold medal winner, admitted to taking steroids. Black potentially should have been the World Champion as he took Silver. In 2010 Pettigrew committed suicide.


For more about the 4x400m - in their own voices see this links: (This is fantastic)
Roger
Derek
John
Kriss


For more about Redmond (and some Sally Gunnell) - see here


Apologies to Sally Gunnell - I'm sure your husband and kids like you.

31st August 1991 Day 42

The Diary
Some pretty dismal performances by the Brits in today's finals but the relay teams got going and looked pretty good - with the exception of the women's sprint quartet. A British record by the women's 4x400m team and the world's fastest time of the year by the men. Quicker than the Yanks, with two second string runners. It was time to reflect on Michael Johnson's quote about not being picked for the USA 4x400m squad. He said "I think we're underestimating the strength of the opposition." At least one American knew what he was talking about.

In Rome we had to rely on the wheelchair finals for our world records but this time they let us down. Maybe they should do the steeplechase and the pole vault. On the way home I was mistaken for an athlete again (is Tom McKean still an athlete these days ?) but the Japanese girl didn't seem to understand that I was just a spectator and seemed disappointed that we wouldn't sign autographs. Glenn said "OK then" and signed for a joke, swiftly followed by Bop and me. Next thing we were surrounded by loads of Japanese kids wanting autographs. We made a quick run for it before things got out of hand. They probably thought we were rotten not signing any more autographs. Anyway one of mine is worth 10 of Katrin Krabbe's.

2011
It's been interesting writing all this at the same time that the 2011 World Championships have been on. There were many Tokyo performances that surpassed this years performances. The British 4x400m teams of 2011 are a shadow of the 1991 teams. 


Wheelchair athletics was seldom seen and I don't recall seeing or knowing about the Paralympics until years later. In 2011 athletically challenged (my mate John McLean doesn't like the use of the term "disabled") Oscar Pistorious won a silver medal as part of the SA 4x400m team. 

30th August 1991 Day 41

The Diary
The day history was made. Bob Beamon finally disappeared from the record books and Carl Lewis lost a long jump. And we were there. 

Whilst all the fuss about the long jump was going on Liz McColgan was tearing the field apart in the 10,000m.

We got to sing the national anthem after all. It makes you proud to be British. We stayed so long at the stadium to celebrate that we missed meeting up with the other lads to hit Roppongi for the big night out.

We met the GB team chaplain in McDonalds and he filled us in with a few bits of inside information about the team. Apparently Regis is to run in both the 4x100m and the 4x400m. Earlier today we took some photos of some of the stars by the warm up area. Krabbe fwhooar.

Lisa Martin (Aus) and Yobes Ondieki (Ken) - Husband and wife

2011
Roppongi - didn't get out there this time but in later years spent many a drunken evening there. Usually ended up at Starbucks at 3am trying to sober up.


The greatest long jump competition ever. Even to this day nothing has come close. Read this for more. Even Katrin Krabbe gets a mention. Fwhooar.

29th August 1991 Day 40

The Diary
It pissed down in the morning so we gave the stadium a miss and headed to Harajuku to get a T-shirt each. Unfortunately the shop said they were just for officials so we headed back to the stadium. The session was quite triumphant by British standards so far. Two silver medals and a bronze. I thought sally Gunnell was going to catch up and get first place. She wouldn't get into the German team though. Too ugly. And Roger Black was good for an Emlyn coming off the final bend. Shame he couldn't quite hang on. Bubka did though. What a man, reminds me of Steve Plint in a way. 

Linford

Ben Johnson

On the way home we passed Rodion Gataullin in the back of a bus. He was not happy, punching and kicking the seats and obviously turning the air blue in Russian. It's only a game Roddy.

Not another one.....

Quick pizza, one beer, early night.


2011
back to Steve Plint - he was a 4.20m pole vaulter. Famous for his plant. Where is he now ?

28th August 1991 Day 39

The Diary
The rest day. I don't call sitting in a coach for about 8 hours a rest. Up early for the 2.5hour journey to Mt Fuji. Stopped at a Japanese motorway service station for 15mins which was only 15mins less than we stopped at Mt Fuji. The coach drove us virtually to the top from where we couldn't see the bottom because of the cloud cover. This made it seem like a small hill.  

The day trip so far had been marred by the self-centred xenophobic rantings of a boring pratt by the name of Benny Goodman (seriously). He thought he was funny but he was upsetting quite a few people on the bus. I forgot to say big-mouthed in my adjectives. He should have stayed at home and watched it on TV, as he obviously would have been happier. God knows how he could say that Roma 87 was better organised and less of a rip-off than Tokyo.


After leaving Mt Fuji we had another long drive to a hotel for dinner. They must have just emptied a few airline trays onto plates and they had us out quicker than McDonalds. Next stop Hakone, where we were whisked up a boring hill in a cable car, down again and onto a ferry for a 10min boat ride. On the boat was Dave Buzza, ex-school mate of Plinty's, ex-Lufbra and in the GB marathon team. This was the third time on this day trip that we'd bumped into him and about 6 times during the week. Why couldn't we bump into Katrin Krabbe ?

Back on the bus, quick stop at a fish shop (not a fish and chip shop) and then onto the station to the bullet train. On the train I was sat next to the syrup and we talked about Melbourne 60, Tokyo 64, the World Vet Champs and horse racecourses of Yorkshire. Actually, he was quite interesting. But I was more interested in his syrup. Bad. Bop was sat with three schoolgirls but they soon all fell fast asleep. Maybe it was the Alex Higgins cue action.


In the evening the boys had another night on the piss. The same story, easy to find a drink with a meal then the struggle to find somewhere that would just let us drink. Eventually found a bar that was like the inside of a pirate ship and got pissed. Chatted to an off-duty policemen and on the way home passed the drink-induced unconscious suits in the park.


2011
Plinty - see http://gazoz91.blogspot.com/2011/07/whats-it-all-about-then.html. The groom. 


Racecourses of Yorkshire ? 1. Wetherby 2.err...can't name any others. Ripon maybe.


Alex Higgins cue action. Mark Knopfler's guitar technique. Bop's standard chat-up lines. Hence his success with the fairer sex. Not sure how he lured Denise but she must have been into snooker. 


In my Dow Corning years the Pirate Bar became a favourite haunt. Looked, creaked and smelt like the inside of the Black Pearl.. Or was it the Black Pig ?


The moral of the story ? Don't go on an organised coach trip.

27th August 1991 Day 38

The Diary
Didn't bother getting up for the morning session - thanks to the previous night - but instead walked to the Emperor's Palace. This time the Eastern Gardens were open. Nothing could stop us now, the thrill of a lifetime. Except they were crap. Nothing like we'd imagined - no pagodas, colourful flowers, fountains, bridges, water features etc. but instead there were a few grassed areas (keep off the grass) and some castle walls. They really need to sort out their parks.

Katrin Krabbe - prettier than Sally Gunnell, fact.

Back to the stadium and as usual Akabusi did us proud. Krabbe was worth watching even if she'd walked, Michael Johnson did walk it, and, god why do we have to suffer them , the French won the 400m for women. Konchellah came from nowhere to win the 800m in the same way he knocked McKean out. An early night in anticipation of tomorrow's trip to Mt Fuji.

26th August 1991 Day 37

The Diary
Sally Gunnell looking good - but not good looking - as were Roger Black and Kriss Akabusi. Not much to cheer about in the men's 800, 10,000 and 200 though. Paid to go into a kid's playground thinking it was a park entry fee. We found a decent Buddhist, or was it Shinto, shrine in the middle of nowhere. No amount of good luck charms would change the GB fortunes it seems.

In the evening Graham x 2, Glenn, Andy and I went out for a drink. As usual we spent ages searching around trying to find a decent bar we could afford. At one point we were greeted by oohs and aahs from some particularly gorgeous Japanese women as we entered a bar. "Sit down" said the manager. "How much?" (Ikura) we asked. "one man 25,000 Yen" he wrote. 125quid each, to sit down, before the drinks. No way Jose (Iie). We scarpered before they charged us for breathing the air. We wandered around a bit more and came across a fairly large karaoke cafe bar and they seemed quite keen to have us. We had to eat with our drinks but no-one had eaten anyway so we stayed. 

A chinese waitress interpreted the landlord's pidgin English into her pidgin English for us. Her name was something-something-noshi. After getting up and murdering another karaoke number Glenn thought his luck was in with Noshi. They did "Love me tender" as a duet but when it came to the crunch "what time do you finish work?" he was about as close as Tom McKean. Looked good but failed to get past the qualifying round.


2011
Sally Gunnell - the secret love of Graham's life and an Essex girl to boot.

25th August 1991 Day 36

The Diary
This was the day that " Carr Rewis" broke the world record but that will get a lot of coverage elsewhere so all that I'll say is "wow". It was about this day that we noticed that many of our fellow athletics fans could pass themselves off as trainspotters without too much trouble. The French were becoming annoying with their "hallo, halllooo"whenever anyone got vaguely near obscuring their view - whether anything was happening or not.

Easy rider

We journeyed across to Ginza, a posh shopping area. where the streets are closed to traffic on a Sunday. Had a slush puppie type freebie and watched old Tokyo Joe busking before dashing back to the stadium for the evening session and the sensational (Copyright Fluff Freeman) 100m.

The Flag (No French in sight)

2011
100m - 6 men under 10secs, by far the greatest 100m race of all time (at that point). We were there. Not the greatest event of these championships though. That was to come later.

24th August 1991 Day 35

The Diary
Up bright and early to catch the first round of the 100m. Zut Alors. We were seated next to the French. Anglo-French relations could deteriorate over the next few days. At dinner time we walked over to the trendy punk/young people's shopping area. There seems to be a real obsession with things British or American and there were loads of shops selling flags. I purchased a large Union Jack in the hope it would get us on the BBC but we'll probably need a British winner first.

Back at the stadium by the warm-up track a chinese-type from Reuters took photos of us in the mistaken belief that we were British athletes. We were tempted to sign our names as Roger Black and Tom McKean though I'm glad I didn't admit to being the accident prone Scot. The Japanese have a lot of marketing giveaways to advertise their products and by the end of the day we'd had more freebies than Nick Faldo. Cough mixture, sweets, fans, drinks, m+ms and balloons.

In the evening we escaped from the main group, along with Glenn, to go for a drink. We discovered a quiet bar and settled down. Suddenly we discovered it had a karaoke machine when a couple in the bar got up to sing. It's taken a bit more seriously here. Glenn decided to join in and treated us to the worst version of My Way in history. The machine should adjust the voice to make it bearable but it gave up the ghost with Glenn. Then a couple of cynical Irish lads came in and one of them did a rendition of Danny Boy accompanied by the landlord on electric guitar. A veritable Elic Crapton. 

I won't mention the mouse on the stove top as we didn't eat.


2011
The trendy area in Tokyo was almost certainly Harajuku. 


I was still referring to lunch time as dinner time back in those days.


I still have the flag and it's served me well at other events particularly the Sydney 2000 Olympics.


Graham was convinced he was Roger Black incarnate. He was more like this famous Roger.

23rd August 1991 Day 34

Diary
Had a guided tour of the traffic jams of Tokyo whilst being taught the finer points of Japanese life by Marie. Unfortunately, when teaching us some Japanese symbols she asked what two trees were. "Six" came the reply. You had to be there. We only had time for a quick look around a temple before being taken to the stadium for the opening ceremony. It was during the temple trip that we came across the old duffer with the appalling syrup. Not even a close fit and an awful style to boot.

A lone skydiver hitting the target

The opening ceremony was as boring as expected but to make it worse, it pissed down. To rub things in, we missed the GB team when we were hiding from the downpour. When Sakamoto came on with his Action, Image, Exchange bit we decided we'd had enough.


2011
Ryuichi Sakomoto


Tokyo trafic - see here


The whole visit to Tokyo was an amazing eye opener for me - I'd had little or no exposure to Asia and thought Tokyo was fantastic and mysterious. When I left I firmly believed it was unlikely that I'd ever visit again. Five years later I was in a job in Sydney that involved working in Tokyo for a week every month. In little over 2 years I visited there 25 times and not only did I know the difference between kanji, hiragana and katakana but I was pretty good at reading kana and could even speak a little Japanese. The bars of Shinjuku were like a second home and I even watched Boro reach the FA Cup final with a mate in a Tokyo bar. 


Next month Christy and I are taking the kids there for a 2 week holiday. I'd better start refreshing my language skills.


"Action, Image, Exchange" - this was an in-joke that meant it was all a bit esoteric and arty for us. The kodo drumming was good though.


Syrup - Syrup of figs - wig.

Goodbye beach balls

I can't believe that in the diary I didn't mention how disastrous the opening ceremony was. The wind and the rain messed everything up. Most of the sky divers missed because of the wind and the large yellow inflatable balls that were supposed roll down overhead from the top of the stadium to the infield by the crowd were just blown out of the stadium and disappeared. Some poor Japanese families probably ended up with 20ft diameter yellow beach-balls in their backyards.

22nd August 1991 Day 33

Diary
This morning we were shown how to get to the station - which we'd already discovered. Then, along with Ian, who'd won the trip in a raffle, we caught a tube to the station and then walked to the Tokyo Tower. The tower is supposedly taller than the Eiffel Tower but you could have fooled me. Anyhow, we manged to get Graham up in the lift. He had his eyes shut but he survived. A Japanese couple got us to pose for photos with their daughter and then we signed our names for them. Strange people the Japanese.

 We went to the Emperor's gardens and palace but they were shut. Typical. In the evening 10 of us got together and hunted round Shinjuku for something to eat. We found somewhere that could get us all in a midst lots of laughter and pointing at the pictures outside we managed to order a selection of dishes. The third one was absolutely inedible. Afterwards we spent a couple of hours searching for a bar that sold only beer - in vain.

Graham and Ian

2011
Shinjuku Station - the world's busiest train station and the dividing point between the hustle and bustle of the bars , shops and life on one side and the government buildings and businesses on the other side.


We bought our tickets through David Barnett's Track and Field Tours Company and there were many other British fans staying in our hotel. Ian was a freelance vision mixer and filled us in on some BBC insider stories - but you'll have to wait until 1st September to find out more.

Bop hanging on

Graham was (is) notoriously scared of heights. I remember him pinned to the wall of a staircase in a museum in Germany because it had a pendulum hanging down the middle. He looked up at the pendulum and froze. I think we peeled him off the wall and carried him down. Getting him up the tower was a major coup. Another friend of mine, Dileep, is similarly scared of heights and when we went to Paris together he ended up stuck at the top of the Eiffel Tower for several hours waiting for me. He went in the lift and I went up the stairs and when I didn't see him at the first stage I thought he'd chickened out. He'd actually gone all the way to the top. This was in the days before mobiles and I couldn't find him anywhere so went sightseeing for the rest of the afternoon while he hung for dear life at the top of the tower. He he.

21st August 1991 Day 32

Diary
Arrived at Tokyo Narita Airport. All of the guidebooks make out that it is quite difficult and expensive to do the forty miles from the airport to the city. But despite the fact that I didn't really know where I was going, it was easy. Here's how you do it. Firstly, feign ignorance of Japanese (easy this bit) and try to ask directions from a girl holding a Tokyo '91 board. Secondly, don't object when she ushers you on to the journalist's courtesy bus for  a free ride. Finally, keep your mouth shut and take the free can of Coke.

The Budokan (I think)

Got to the hotel and bumped into a very tired David Barnett who gave me a room key and directed me to Bop. Tired he might have been but awake he certainly was, so we headed into Shinjuku for food. People, lights and bars everywhere and we couldn't understand a word. But we decided to take pot luck, literally, and steamed into a bar and ordered a pot of noodles and some omelette type things. 

We didn't quite steam in because we couldn't operate the door. It looks like pointing at menus could be a good way of communicating our hunger. Afterwards, we got lost for a while, wandered through the red light district and eventually through the park and back to the hotel. It's safe to walk in even the dodgiest looking parts of Tokyo. Amazing.


2011
I think we stayed in the New City hotel - see here.