Olympics diary

Many an athlete has dropped a proverbial clanger at the Olympics, but today saw a Games official do so quite literally.

The swimming official was shaking her hand bell to signify the final 100metres of a women’s 800m freestyle heat, but she did so in such a violent manner that the clanger actually came loose and fell into the pool, narrowly missing the competitor in lane six.

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Darren Campbell has been so bored as he builds up to his bid for Olympic glory over 100metres and 200m that he has been busy building up his secretarial skills.

Campbell has taken on the task of compiling a list detailing the times of physio treatment sessions for his team-mates in the British athletics team.

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Chinese swimmer Xiujun Chen was leading at the halfway point of the women’s 200m backstroke heats this morning but after touching the wall suddenly stopped, seemingly thinking that was the end of the race.

Realising her mistake, she then swam one stroke freestyle before slowly completing the race using the backstroke, only to be promptly disqualified.

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The BOA are trying to organise a press conference after Amir Khan’s bout with Bulgaria’s Dimitar Stilianov tomorrow following the media scrum which followed his first-round encounter.

The 17-year-old is Great Britain’s only boxing representative at the Athens Games and everyone wanted to interview him after his stoppage win over Marios Kaperonis of Greece.

Khan had to make his way down a long line of British journalists, answering the same questions two or three times.

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The unlikeliest medallists of these Games could be the Iraqi football team, whose control has been wrested away from Saddam Hussein’s family since the dictator’s fall from power.

Having beaten Portugal and Costa Rica, they rested key players last night and tripped up against Morocco.

But coach Adnan Hamad Majeed remains optimistic ahead of the quarter-final against Australia, and he is simply relishing the chance to be involved in the Games.

“It was a great opportunity for us to gain knowledge. We had too many difficulties to face in our country and we are trying to build a new team,” he said.

“Our job is not easy against Australia. It is going to be a very difficult match, but we have a good opportunity to qualify to the semi finals.”

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Crowds continue to be very poor for the morning swimming sessions at the Olympic Aquatics Centre.

The evening sessions, when superstars like Ian Thorpe and Michael Phelps are gunning for gold medals, are naturally attracting big crowds.

But there are large gaps in the stands for the morning sessions.

Perhaps the host nation’s decision not to put a roof on the stadium has affected ticket sales because the heat is intense during the morning sessions.

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Pongsiree Bunluewong, riding Eliza Jane, has become the first Thai rider to compete in an Olympic Games three-day event.

He scored 74.6 points in the dressage, a creditable 4.4 in the cross country and 32 in the showjumping to finish 51st out of 68 finishers.

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Canadian joker Ron Benshimon, who dived into the Olympic pool during competition was sentenced to five months in prison for interrupting the Games - but later released on appeal after paying a 2000Euro fine.

Benshimon jumped off the three-metre springboard during the synchronised diving on Tuesday, wearing a sky blue tutu and white tights with polka dots.

The 31-year-old from Montreal claimed to have been acting in the spirit of Spyros Louis, the marathon winner from the first modern Olympics.

Much like Karl Power – famous for infiltrating Manchester United’s team photo - Benshimon is a regular joker and took to the ice in similar garb during the World Figure Skating championships last March.

His action prompted a tightening of security in Athens, though Team Canada’s security liaison RCMP Inspector Louis Lahaie said: “There’s no screening device in the world that will detect a tutu.”

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Games organisers remain quite happy with the attendance figures at the Olympics.

They reported 81,199 tickets were sold yesterday taking the overall figure to 3,165,017, surpassing the pre-Games 3.1million target they had set themselves.