After flying first thing yesterday morning, I thought I'd have plenty of time to get to grips with the candidates, voting system and main areas of contention before putting my thoughts down today.

It didn't quite work out like that. 

After strolling bright and bushy-tailed into London Heathrow Terminal 5 at 5.30am, I was informed at the check-in desk that, despite showing on the screen as on-time, my British Airways flight had actually been cancelled. "Oh, pop over to Zone E," I was told. "They should be able to put you on another flight…."

I soon discovered that the crowd massing around Zone E was roughly comparable to that attending the FA Cup final at Wembley the day before. The line for the help desk snaked virtually the entire way around the Terminal building. Hundreds more remarkably patient passengers were kept outside by armed police. It took me two hours until I was queuing in the right direction. 

Realising that the ITTF election would have happened by the time I got to the front of this queue, the insidethegames travel agent eventually booked me onto an evening flight. Once I had checked in and gone through security, however, I received an email informing me that this flight too had been cancelled. I then had to wait three hours to retrieve my luggage - it eventually turned up at 9pm - before a night in a hotel and a successful third attempt today.

It showed how lucky I have been on most other flights over the last four years. I felt sorrier for fellow passengers missing out on holidays.

It got me thinking, though, about when sporting events have been affected by travel chaos. This does not happen too often in the world of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), something to do with the business-class flights and limo service, I suppose, although I have heard occasional stories of International Federations frantically hunting for somebody to vote in an election due to everyone else being delayed.

Actual sportspeople are often more effected, though, despite the "athlete-first" approach we hear so much about these days…

Three members of the Welsh team due to compete at the ITTF World Championships, starting here today, were forced to travel by bus to Birmingham Airport to make sure they arrived on time. They were meant to be on my first flight before braving the re-booking queue and one team member, Chloe Thomas, summed up the scene at Heathrow exceptionally well. "There's no-one to help, no leadership, it's just mental," she told Wales Online.

At one point, an understandably irate Paralympian in United States national kit was complaining to British Airways staff after being told there was no way he could get to Paris in time to compete in a World Championship-qualifying competition. Athletes hoping to travel back from the Diamond League meeting in Eugene to race at the Vitality 10,000 metres in London today were also affected, although one, Scotland's Andrew Butchart, still managed to, not only make it in time, but win the men's race.

The unrest at Heathrow yesterday was nothing compared to scenes in April 2010 when a small volcanic eruption at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland triggered an ash cloud leading to devastation across European airspace.

Dozens of events, including the European Gymnastics Championships in Birmingham, a Diving Grand Prix in Sheffield and a Moto GP in Japan, were delayed or cancelled. Even the big boys were hit, as Barcelona were forced to travel almost 1,000 miles by coach before losing a Champions League semi-final against Inter Milan. 

A gold medal for perseverance went to British three-day eventer Oliver Townend. He was so keen to travel to Kentucky for a shot at a £230,000 ($295,000/€264,000) Grand Slam bonus that he took two trains to Paris and then a £1,600 ($2,054/ €1,837) taxi to Madrid. He then flew on a Disneyland-bound flight for Miami before reaching the Lexington venue via two more internal shuttles. The eventual winner was his compatriot William Fox-Pitt, who had done the latter half of the journey with him after his horse's owner flew him "privately" to the Spanish capital. There's a lesson there somewhere...

The most bizarre story related to the ash cloud is told, as they often are, by former England football manager Sam Allardyce. 

"Big Sam", forced to resign from the national role last year after being caught in a newspaper sting operation, claims that his then-team Blackburn Rovers were about to sign Poland's future Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich star striker Robert Lewandowski for around £2.5 million ($3.1 million/€2.9 million). Alas, they were unable to meet him due to the ash cloud and the deal fell through. To think, one of the biggest names in the sport could have been playing in the third tier of English football next season...

There are many cases of sporting fixtures being delayed due to bad traffic. An English Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham was pushed back by 30 minutes for this reason last year after the visitors' team bus failed to reach the ground in time.

"United's team bus moving slower than a Carrick-Fellaini midfield there," tweeted one hack.

The arrival of sat-navs in cars has brought with it new problems. A group of Belgium fans travelling to Cardiff for a Euro 2016 qualifier punched in the name of their opponents and were surprised to find themselves 200 miles away in the village of Wales in South Yorkshire. There are also several stories about people hoping to watch Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge only to end up at the wrong end of the country inspecting the site for a 1066 battle between Anglo-Saxon English and invading Viking hordes.

To return to air delays, West Indian bowler Vasbert Drakes has the dubious honour of being one of the only cricketers to be given "timed out" in a South African domestic match at East Lothian in 2002-2003. He was not actually in the country due to a plane delay in Sri Lanka but sheepishly arrived in time to take two wickets the next day. In 1948, another West Indian cricketer, Everton Weekes, was late for a Test Match in Kingston and supposedly spotted the match taking place out of the window during his descent.

It is fairly common for athletes to arrive at a venue missing part or all of their kit. Spanish vaulter Didac Salas missed out on an last opportunity to gain an Olympic qualifying mark in Amsterdam last year when an airline lost his pole. He borrowed one from a friend but "didn't feel comfortable" and crashed out 20 centimetres below his target height.

Australian sailors heading to the Olympics in London four years earlier did so without three sets of sails after their airline mistook them for cargo. Most bizarrely of all, New Zealand Para-athlete Kate Horan arrived in Assen for the 2006 World Championships minus her prosthetic leg. It happened on a British Airways flight at Heathrow Airport, for the record, and it turned up a week later.

Missing athletes are often a source of good stories for journalists with lots of column inches to fill in the days leading up to an Olympic Games. In Rio de Janeiro last year, American beach volleyball player April Ross was forced to beg for help on social media after her cancelled flight was re-arranged for the day of her opening match.

Of course, good transport can also save errant sportspeople. A time-zone mix-up saw golfer Rory McIlroy come perilously close to missing his crucial Ryder Cup singles clash with Keegan Bradley at Medinah in 2012. 

The Northern Irishman only arrived on time after hitching a lift in an unmarked police car. 

My taxi driver on the way to the airport yesterday also told a good story about how he was running late when driving Formula One star Sebastian Vettel to the airport. 

He performed one overtaking manoeuvre which apparently caused the German to turn, nod in approval and mutter "nice" as they arrived just on time for his flight.