I did my early morning swimming as usual. I was the only one in the pool today as Graham was saving himself for his practice swim. There was a busy schedule today with racking the bike, swim practice, race briefing and opening ceremonies.

On looking out of the window we could see cameras pointing upwards, so me be nosey went to investigate. There was a charity abseil going on down the hotel wall. It was worth investigating as I found out that the temperature had dropped by about 10 degrees so away went the shorts and out came the fleece.

The lifts were even more chaotic with abseilers trying to get to the 26th floor and all the the triathletes taking their bikes down in the lifts to go off to the park to get them racked.
There were no formal racing events today but all the athletes were there racking bikes and getting in and out of their wetsuits to go on a practise swim, so there was plenty of bare flesh and rippling muscles around, so I didn't get too bored.

In the afternoon Graham had a race briefing and team photo and then all the athletes congregated to form a parade of nations similar to the Olympics with the girl guides carrying the country banner. Of course there was a lot of hanging around involved but at least it was now hot and sunny. They all paraded to the Square where the official opening speeches went on (and on). Everyone then paraded off to a very large conference centre for a dinner. I couldn't imagine how they were going to sit everyone down for a meal but we walked into an enormous room with over 200 tables and enjoyed a pasta dinner and lemonade but there was no all night partying tonight. Maybe tomorrow..