Led by shooter Abhinav Bindra, archers and weightlifters settle down at Seaside Building while others lose their way.
While the Australian and American athletes had a rather difficult time reaching the Olympic Village in London, there was no such trouble for the Indian contingent as the first batch of the athletes, led by Beijing Games gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, checked in to the Olympic Games Village in London on Monday evening.
Many athletes from Australia and USA took more than four hours to reach the Village after their bus lost the way. The Indian contingent, though, had a smooth entry in to the Village. Besides, the 10-member archery squad and four-member weightlifting team reached the Village on Monday.
Deputy chef de mission of the Indian contingent, Col PK Muralidhar Raja, said the athletes had their first training session on Tuesday.
“The euphoria of participating in Olympics was quite evident on the faces of the athletes but the fact that the weather was quite cold and the unpredictable rains were certainly a dampener on their spirits. They have, however, settled down,” Raja said.
The 81-member Indian contingent, along with 51 officials, will be put up in the Seaside Building S1, named Titan. Majority of the athletes are accommodated on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors while the others will be in townhouses by the side of the building.
The official welcome ceremony for the Indian contingent will be held on July 22. The Indian delegation, Raja informed, had requested the organisers to reschedule it on July 25 so that majority of the athletes could be a part of it. But the organisers expressed their inability to do so as there are no free slots available.
Meanwhile, agencies add that the members of the Australian and American teams were taken on an unexpected marathon trip across the city of London after their team buses lost their way while traveling from Heathrow Airport to the Olympic Park.
The Australians were among the first wave of the 16,500 athletes due to compete at the Olympic Games to arrive in London, and their hopes for a speedy transfer from the airport to the athletes’ accommodation, which opened on Monday, were dashed when their bus driver lost the way, and it took them around three-and-a-half-hours to reach their destination.
The bus driver took his Australian passengers of 30 officials and medical staff past Buckingham Palace and the back streets of West Ham. He had not driven or been shown the route before, and could not operate the GPS navigation system fitted in the vehicle.
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