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Jeff says it looks like there is an advantage to being on the inside pit vs the outside pit because of the crown.

ts the way the pits sit relative to the crown, the inside pit is more centered on the crown so you get an equal amount of uphill and downhill run, for the outside pit because of the curve, the pit sits closer to the peak of the crown and you have more uphill run. same thing happened in osaka last year and that is why you saw only 4 guys qualify from the outside pit

Pit A is the inside pit.

It ended up being even on qualifying, but he thinks that could be a factor as to why so many girls were coming down on the bar.

I tried to look at the inside of the Bird's Nest with the Google Earth map, and I could - it's really quite awesome to see it in 3D!

But the stadium is empty, so I can only see the empty grass field, the track, and the mondo "end zones". To see the lines on the track is amazing, considering the pics came from a camera on a satelite!

I imagine that Pit A and Pit B are both in the same end zone, but I can't see them becuz they weren't set up when the google map pics were taken. I just see the mondo.

If anybody has a link to a diagram that shows the layout, it would be appreciated. I kind of understand what Jeff and Becca mean, but a diagram or pic would help.

You can rove over the stadium in 3D here:

http://www.maplandia.com/china/beijing/ ... earth.html

You'll have to install the "Google Earth" plug-in to see this.

Kirk

Yes, they are in the same end zone.

With high tech drainage systems you no longer need crowns on fields. For example, the football field at UT has a computerized drainage system that can pull like 3" of water per hour out of the field. It did cost like $5M but they made a huge deal out of installing it because they could remove the crown. Seems like a small investment if you're building a $500M stadium.

Fairly good coverage of the women's prelims on CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corp). They showed Isi, Jenski, Steiner, Hendry, a Chinese vaulter whose pole slipped out of her hands and she flipped into the pit, and a few more clearances. No complaints with the coverage.

I saw a clear view of the track and Pit A and Pit B in the end zone, so I now see what Jeff's complaining about.

I didn't see the crown of the field, of course, but I'll take his word on that - based on how football/soccer pitch crowns usually go.

It's too bad they don't completely flatten both runways. Don't see too much of a drainage problem by doing that, as long as each runway has a slight crown to drain the water off each side of it, then drains from there. At this level of competition, there shouldn't be any lengthwise crown on the runways at all, IMHO.

Kirk