 If you have a question for Justin email oxford@bbc.co.uk |
Great Britain wheelchair rugby player Justin Frishberg will be appearing in his second Games in Beijing. The 36-year-old will be writing regularly on the BBC Oxford website about his experiences. Here he tells about his latest preparations for the Games which begin on 6 September.
Our week in Macau has come to an end. The physiologists gave us the all clear 2 days ago that we were free from jet lag and the coach then set about much harder training sessions. In truth, that's actually what everyone wanted. The adrenalin has started pumping and it is great to get a release in the form of sprinting round the court smashing into everyone. Today we fly to Beijing. It's a long day, ensuring our massive amount of kit and equipment is in order for the flight, loading on and off buses, planes, more buses, and then probably some more buses. But entering the Paralympic Village, our base camp for the next 14 days, will wipe away all tiredness and fill us with a sense of purpose. Today we travel in our red presentational t-shirts, yesterday we trained in our blue functional t-shirts and soon will come the functional polo shirts, parade wear for the opening ceremony, official training kit etc. We have a uniform for every day, which I thought would be oppressive, but it means we look like such a tight unit from the breakfast table, to the travel to the training venues and all around the hotel. What we're all looking forward to, however, is wearing the GB playing vest in 8 days time against the Wheelblacks. p.s. My 3 words of Mandarin are proving very useful for winning over the locals. With just short of 24 hours travelling, the rugby team have all safely arrived in Macau. Many of the GB Paralympic squad are acclimatising and training here before the trip to Beijing in under a week. I am totally chuffed with the facilities here and the efforts the British Paralympic Association have made to make sure we're ready. I'm not the sort of person who is good at praising people, but the hotel is nicer than I'd pay for. We have a view of the beach from our balcony but it is so hot that it's foolish to spend more than 10 minutes out there, the food is excellent and I've had two massages already this afternoon! It's a far cry from the life I'm used to on tournaments with our clubs. There we're herded around like cattle, and stay in grotty inaccessible places, and often play five games in two days, with hardly enough to time to eat, clean up and sleep. But this is different, this is the one tournament in the four years that matters. It gives me a real buzz to be treated so well. I am looking forward to this week, and can't wait to get some of the nervous tension out during training.
|
Bookmark with:
What are these?