Olympian Julie does us proud...

Deepings Olympic athlete Julie Hollman says her Beijing heptathlon may be her last.

While 31-year-old Julie may not have been in the medals over the weekend, she can be justly proud of her achievement in competing on the Olympic stage, despite injuries which hampered her training.

What a fantastic athlete.

Her Dad John was sadly unable to be with Julie in Beijing after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. But the TV coverage of Julie's progress through the seven events on Saturday and Sunday was excellent and the commentators spoke very highly of the Deepings lass.

Well done Julie.

Will you still be up tonight for our Julie in Beijing...?

In the early hours of Friday morning British time, Deepings Olympic athlete Julie Hollman will be on the starting blocks at Beijing .

At 2.08am British time (9.08am in Beijing), Julie will line up for the second heat of the 100 metres hurdles, the first of the seven heptathlon events which take place over Friday and Saturday.

Less than 90 minutes later, Julie will be for the high jump, followed by the shot putt at noon British time, 7pm in Beijing.

She is due to complete day one of the event with the 200 metres heat at 2.36 Friday afternoon - 9.36pm Beijing time. Then on Saturday, she is scheduled to take part in the long jump, javelin and 800 metres events.

You can all Julie's start times at the official Beijing site which will carry a running total of the scores. There's also further background info at the
IAAF site.

I've already printed off all Julie's start times, together with her personal best performances in each discipline and those of the althletes she is competing against.

So get the telly warmed up and get cheering...

Go Julie, Go.

Deeping Athlete's leap into the Olympics...

Best of British to Julie Hollman from Deeping St James who has made it to the Beijing Olympics.

Julie's mum Carole and her sister Anne will be in Beijing to support her in the heptathlon event which is due to start next Friday.

Sadly, Julie's dad John has been diagnosed with lung cancer and is too ill to travel to China. He will be following events on the telly from the family home here on Church Street, DSJ.

Fantastic achievement to be representing your country at the Olympics. I'm sure we'll all be cheering Julie on to a personal best performance.