Olympics open with fanfare; Kilgore's Kenta Bell training
KILGORE'S KENTA BELL IN BEIJING OLYMPICS
By MITCH LUCAS sports@kilgorenewsherald.com

WOW — Fireworks explode over the National Stadium, known as the "Bird's Nest," during the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Kilgore native Kenta Bell, a U.S. track & field athlete, came in with the U.S. Olympic team.

The opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics were truly breathtaking, as broadcast on NBC Friday night, and when the U.S. Olympic Team came into Beijing's new National Stadium — known as "the Bird's Nest" because of its strange shape — Kilgore native Kenta Bell was representing East Texas.

Bell, 31, is competing in his second Olympics in the men's triple jump. The 1995 Kilgore High School graduate is in training right now, and competes Aug. 18.

The Olympics are being broadcast on NBC and several of its sister stations. NBC is Kilgore Cable channels 6, 9 and 24.

Bell updates his web site — kentabelltriplejump. blogspot.com. — regularly, and wrote this entry Thursday.

"Things have been going really well here at training camp," Bell wrote. "...I'd like to let everyone know that things are really safe here and there should be no concerns. I've had lots of questions asked lately about threats, earthquakes and etc. In the city where I am currently located, we have the highest level security possible. The same level which would be granted to the U.S.

President, also here. We travel to and from training sessions by police escort. As well there are undercover agents located throughout the hotel and on every floor of the hotel. So for all those who are concerned, we are very well protected.

"In regards to training things are going very well. I'm on a 1:1, ratio which would be every other day, and sometimes every second day depending on my resting heart rate when I wake up in the morning. Monday, I had a very good jump session. I only took a few jumps but things went really well. Initially it didn't feel that great, but I was going really far and things were rather fluid with no resistance. Later that evening I got got a copy of the training session video and it was unbelievable how well I looked. I was hitting positions that you can only picture and imagine. If I'm able to duplicate and hit these same position from a full run-in competition I could easily walk away from here as the gold medalist. "Wednesday I went out and had an approach session and things went very well in terms of consistency, rhythm and velocity through the critical zones. When things are going that well you don't want to do much. My goal is always get off and on the track as fast as possible and conserve as much energy as possible. I used (Thursday) as an active recovery day and today will be a complete recovery day with light treatment and an ice bath."

Follow Kenta's path to a possible medal in the News Herald.