I was dancing and prancing around in the Mixed Zone of the Aquatics Centre inside the Olympic Park last night like a mad man, charged by Alia Atkinson's determined effort in the pool and annoying the hell out of the six or so Canadian journalists, who had gathered behind us Jamaicans, as we watched the race on the big screen TVs.

Alia broke the national record, as she booked her space in today's final, against young Canadian Tera Van Beilen.

The other Jamaican journalists, thankfully decided to leave out the dancing and keep their celebrations along the lines of fist pumps and high fives; we can't all be dancers I told them.

"Oh well, congrats guys, you get to stay and write the stories while we can go home and get drunk," one of the Canadians joked, or was it a joke?

It was the first real excitement I've had at these Olympic Games so far - top class swimmers, swimsuits - good stuff.

To think that myself and the other Jamaican journalists here almost missed all the fun.

high demand

Upon arrival at the Aquatics Centre, we were told that we needed tickets to enter the venue because it was a ticketed event due to the high demand and limited space. All that was needed was for media reps to pick up the tickets from their National Olympic Association representative or from the media centre officials.

Remarkably, none of us remembered to remind the JOA officials about the tickets for us.

But with less than an hour before Alia's race, it was next to impossible to go back all the way to the MPC or Olympic Village for any tickets.

So like the Jamaican that I am, I started to affirm that I was going inside the venue one way or the other.

"We are here to cover our swimmer's semi-final and that's exactly what we are going to do inside that venue," I said while pointing at the venue.

"The ticket thing naw guh work right now, the place is empty anyway so we really don't need to have this conversation."

Calm but resolute and defiant, we stood there until the lady, either tired of seeing us or sorry for us, opened the gate.

Moral of the story: Sometimes you have to show resilience and determination in the face of adversity - Bob Marley (And if Bob didn't say it then someone else did at some point, somewhere).