Back to the pool yesterday evening for the finals, where Ben was presented with his two Gold Medals and good old Team GB pounded out the National Anthem (out of time and off key, but hey, who cares).  There were a few delays between Finals and presentations and a lot of time spent taking down and putting up the 25m flags (No one seemed to know why they were doing it but the theory seems to be that this is what happened at the Olympics -so that's what we will do here???) - anyway this meant a delay in getting to our usual bar therefore only managed a quick two rounds before heading off for dinner.  Headed off to bed just after 9pm - its very exhausting being a spectator!!!!! 

And onto today's events........  Some fabulous pb times were obtained by our swimmers today - great celebrations amongst the Team, one of our finest achievements this morning was the girl's 25m medlay relay which pipped the Aussies to come in First and win a Gold.   Caroline Faithfull swum a storming last leg, and swam brilliantly in her 50 Freestyle event earlier in the day thus reducing her Dad to tears for the third time in this competition!  

Ben came first in his heat in the 50 fly which we think mean's that he will get to swim in a Final tonight as there are another 2 mosaic swimmers in that event, but the result sheets were not up so we need to wait this evening to find out.   Joanne then knocked nearly 2 seconds of her 50 freestyle coming 3rd in her heat  followed by a "not so good" 100 breaststroke (one of her supposedly stronger events!).   Ben  then  swam another pb in his 100m Backstroke with a 1.26.78 finishing 5th in the top heat but again there was another Mosaic swimmer in this event so another  possible Finals race tonight.  

Up for an early breakfast and to the pool to bag some seats (If we had been German we would have been up even earlier and saved our seats with some towels).

The viewing area was packed and hardly any standing room, team GB supporters sat together and like the swimmers were easily the most vocal.

It was well into the morning before Big Ben appeared and stormed through his 50 metre Backstroke to a personal best of 39.00 and taking a full second off his entry time and giving him his first GOLDDDDDDD of the Championships

Joanne was next and her task looked formiddable as she had the slowest entry time in her heat amazingly she pulled out all the stops finishing 4th and knocking an unbelievable 6 seconds off her 100 metres Backstroke time.

Ben rounded off the morning with a 3rd place and European record in the 400m Individual Medley which secured him another GOLDDDDD in the Mosiac catergory.

Off back to the pool to watch other swimmers compete in the world Finals and fingers crossed for the other important result:    can Huddersfield Town beat Brighton at the John Smiths Stadium?????

What a great atmosphere as 21 Countries paraded in front of their national flag which took place in the adjoining sports hall to the swimming pool. Team GB win the award for the noisiest biggest and happiest team at the ceremony. The newly appointed team captains for GB paraded with the flags after being chosen by their team mates after having to  make a  speech as to why they wanted to be team captain.

Following the speeches where anyone who is anyone in Loano seemed to make a speech and can you believe it they were all in Italian!!!!!!! the party started and everyone was up dancing and clapping, although not for too long as there is some serious swimming to take place. Took a great photo of the team on the opening ceremony poduim which we will try and down load this evening.

Last training session this afternoon  before the competition starts tomorrow. 

We left the coaches to it today and most of the supporters took the train to Genoa.  A lovely historic city with many alleyways, bars, shops and historic buildings.   We are still having problems with our mobile phones in that those of us on Vodafone are unable to ring out.  The vodafone shop in Italy was very unhelpful - thinking of taking this us with the European Court of Human Rights as this is interferring with our "right to family life" in that we cannot contact our two sons to see if they are coping with the strain of having no parental influence in their lives!!!!!  The other countries teams are now arriving in our hotel - Canada, Italy and South Africa have entered the building and our poor little Italian waiter, and Russian waitress are run even more ragged.  Tomorrow is the opening ceremony and we understand that at the swimming pool the decorations and flags are going up.  

Hi Everyone, it has taken us two days to acccess to the website as we cannot get through on the ipad.  So sat in Hotel Reception!!.  Anyway, team GB cheered it's way into Italy on the British Airways Flight.  Early reports are that everyone has settled in well and the food in the Athlete's village is superb.  Unfortunately coaches, having signed a no-alcohol agreement for the duration their time here, are unable to participate in the free bar service at meal times.  Training sessions for the GB Team are 9 - 11am and 4-6pm over the next couple of days and so far we are the only Team here so we have marked our spectator territory with GB flags, posters, etc.  We will put pictures in the photo gallery as and when we can.

Hi everyone, this is our first attempt at a blog so we are in a steep learning curve.  This is Chris and Andy keeping you updated with how Joanne and Ben are getting on at the Word Downs Syndrome Championships in Loano Italy, November 2012 for all those friends and family who can't unfortunately be here.