If the Olympics would have finished last night, the ending would have been perfect for me - it was a great night of drama and sportsmanship. Have a read how my second to last day went at the London 2012 games.

Programme for the day sorted in advance - off to the Mall for Men's 50km walk and follow that with Women's 20km, before heading for Women's Handball Final in the Olympic Park. Once again Media Shuttle from the MPC all on my own through central London on the 'Zil Lane' and get to the walk just after it started (but the race will last for four hours, so plenty of time to snap pictures).Handball6

Nothing special with the walking shots, but the Finish line is the place to be, one after another the racers crumble to the ground and those are the pictures that will get used. Apart from the Russian winner perhaps who almost seemed ready to walk another lap or two :-) But the Finns, as always were in quite a state when crossing the line.. makes for some good pictures.

Then almost four hours to 'kill' at the Mall, enjoying more expensive sandwiches from the media canteen.. and instead of charging the normal £6.80 for it.. they tried to charge me £9.00. Maybe as the games are getting close to the end they raise the prices. Spent a lot of time talking to the Finnish Photo-agency Lehtikuva photographer during the day, as well as many other people. Handball4 Handball2

One thing about these Olympics has been that people (in general) have been happy to talk to one another, even the Finns sometimes talk.. but that's quite rare. And anytime I am with a Finn somewhere they look at me a bit funnily as I talk to the volunteers, bus drivers.. and so on. But.. when you got time to kill.. why not talk to people??

Women's 20km - apparently the Finn has no chance, so instructions are to shoot few laps and head to the Olympic Park for the Handball Final. There is also supposed to be tickets for the Basketball Final waiting for me (photo tickets, before you all start calling me!!) at the Finnish Photo-Agency desk.. so that's my first point of call. But as Finns seemed to think that every Finnish journalist/photographer is at the Javelin Final at the Stadium.. they have taken the tickets there...smart or not?? So now my only chance to get the ticket is to go to Central London to pick it up on Sunday morning.. nice one!

Handball Final - I covered that because I am 'half-Norwegian' so it was my chance to photograph 'us' winning a Gold medal - unless the Finnish were going to cause a huge upset and win the Javelin at the Stadium (which they didn't). The Arena is full of Norwegians and the atmosphere is really great, perhaps because handball is a smaller sport so fans might have managed to swap tickets to see their team play - so it was played in front of a sold out crowd of FANS, just what you want to see in a Final. Handball6

Game itself offered great saves from both goalkeepers - lead changes and tense final minutes of the game. There were some Norwegian Royal's at the stands - who were even more enthusiastic than the Swedish King the other evening.. included a photo of the family here in the Blog. In the end Norway edge the game, but the Montenegro girls don't feel like losers - first Olympics and in the Final to say farewell to one of the best Women handballer, who finished her career. The gestures from the Montenegro players.. as Norway had the final possession.. the players clapped with the audience as they knew Norway had won the match. Would you see this in Spain vs USA basketball Final... the Spanish players starting to clap 13 seconds before the end to the USA team.. I doubt it, but might be proven wrong! Handball3

Also the way the Montenegro players quickly put on T-shirts with the names of Savic and Popovic in the end and applauded them ... great moment of sporting history. To be honest when the medals were handed out - all three teams seemed to be celebrating very happily.. no long faces anywhere.. and a nice group shot with all three teams mixed together.

It left me with a great feeling as I walked from the Arena to the MPC - in what more than likely was my FINAL day/evening at the Olympic Park. Sunday sees me (hopefully) at the North Greenwich Arena for the basketball.. but it has to be quite a game to be able to top the feeling from Saturday's handball.Handball5

I went to the MPC to clear my locker, sit around for a while in the quiet of the photo workroom, and just reflect on the couple of weeks gone by and what experiences I have had and events I have photographed and people I have met.. 

But one more day to go -so off to the Tube and back to Epping, edit few images and off to bed at 2.30am on the last day of my Olympics!