British Traffic is Horrendous Before London Olympic Games

Written by: on 24th July 2012
Day 66 - Olympic Torch Relay
British Traffic is Horrendous Before London Olympic Games

epa03315840 Photo made available 24 July 2012 shows British tennis number 1 Andy Murray, a finalist at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships earlier this month posing with the Olympic Flame at the All-England Club , Wimbledon, south London on Day 66 of the Olympic Torch Relay late 23 July 2012. EPA/HO  |

London’s notorious traffic was always a potential problem for those tennis players staying in the Official Olympic Village at Stratford and commuting to the All England Club at Wimbledon. As preparations to the Games, which are opened on Friday with the tennis starting the following day, patience is already beginning to fray.

Although the journey is only 14.64 miles and according to the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) is calculated to take just 45 minutes, India’s Somdev Devvarman reported his journey back to Stratford yesterday took more than two hours.

Kazakhstan’s Galina Voskoboeva has also complained about chronic commuting problems. I was waiting for the bus to go from the Olympics Village to Wimbledon for 1 hour 10 minutes! It was late because of the traffic, said the world no.58 who will also contest the doubles alongside Yaroslava Shvedova.

LOCOG have also organized special Olympic only lanes in major routes to ease player commutes but they only come into force Wednesday. The Olympic lanes have provoked widespread criticism in London, with some dubbing them Zil lanes, a reference to the special parts of the road reserved for senior bureaucrats in the Soviet Union.

Local knowledge means the British players will avoid the problem by either staying at home or in a special Team GB House close to the All England Club. Experienced, more wealthy campaigners such as Wimbledon champion Roger Federer and his predecessor Novak Djokovic are doing the same.

The USTA has rented a home in Wimbledon for the US tennis contingent.

Leading Brit Andy Murray will actually be staying in his own house at Oxshott, just a 15 minutes drive from the courts. It could take forever to get across London and that’s not good preparation for competition so its better to be sensible, said Murray who is intent on doing better than at the Beijing Olympics four years ago when he lost in the first round.

In many respects its something of a shame that we wont be staying with all the other athletes from other sports. It was amazing at the last Olympics just being around all the other athletes and having dinner next to the United States basketball team or Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt.

We don’t get the chance to do that as tennis players were always around each other all of the time. So that’s a really nice thing to do.

The majority of the British tennis team will also miss Fridays opening ceremony in the main Olympic Stadium because competition will start less than 12 hours later. Obviously the players are all very proud of being selected for the Olympics and want to enjoy the whole experience but we have also got to be sensible about this, said Britain’s Olympic Tennis Team Leader Paul Hutchins.

Its a difficult one because emotionally, we want to support the opening ceremony and the B.O.A. (British Olympic Association), the I.O.C. (International Olympic Committee) and LOCOG but there is also a performance element to it and if a player feels he or she should not go to the Olympic Ceremony, then that’s fine.

I’m not operating a team three line whip on it. I will be having discussions with everybody to see what the best way of doing things is and if they do go to the Opening Ceremony then very swift arrangements shall be made for getting away afterwards.

©Daily Tennis News Wire

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