There were far too many highlights to do a Top 10 so instead I give you my Top 10 Favourite Olympic Sports and their high points for me during the Games
1. Athletics....What else could it be? Gold Medals for GB from Mo Mo Super Mo, Jessica Ennis and the ginger long jump guy and superb International performances from David Rudisha in the 800 Metres Final and the sprint ladies from the U.S.A. particularly Allyson Felix but the undoubted star of the show was Usain Bolt. We have run out of superlatives to describe this guy. He is quite simply...Bolt!
2. Cycling.....great results and performances from Hoy, Wiggins, Kenny, Trott and several others but a special mention for Victoria Pendleton who was as gracious in defeat as she was in victory. She will be sadly missed
3. Tennis....Gold Medal for Andy Murray achieved with straight sets victories over Djokovic and Federer. Brilliant! ...and a Silver Medal in the Mixed Doubles with Laura Robson for good measure. Also, a fantastic display of power and talent from Serena Williams who added Singles and Doubles titles to those won last month at Wimbledon without breaking sweat
4. Swimming....Not a great tournament for GB apart from an outstanding effort from Michael Jamieson but there was sheer brilliance once again from American Michael Phelps who upped his overall medal total to a record breaking 22, 18 of which have been gold. My favourite moment of the games however came in a race which Michael Phelps lost to Chad le Clos. The reaction of le Clos and his father Bert to the 200M Butterfly victory and subsequent medal ceremony was priceless. The emotion and joy was wonderful to see. As a father of three sons who has shed tears of joy when they scored goals in BB football I can relate to Mr le Clos in what was probably his proudest ever moment
5. Rowing......another strong performance from our rowers the highlight of which was the triumph of Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland who after crossing the winning line exclaimed " We just won the Olympics"
6. Shooting.....Peter Wilson wins a Gold Medal for Team GB. It looks like all those years playing Duck Hunt on the Nintendo has finally paid off
7. Gymnastics....I was pleased to see the likable Beth Tweddle win a medal along with other GB gymnasts. I was somewhat confused by some of the apparatus used in Gymnastics though. In Glasgow parallel bars are pubs across the road from one another
8. Triathlon.....Two brothers from Yorkshire in the first three of this gruelling event. What I found incredible was that Alistair Brownlie's time for running 10k was better than some of the athletes in the 10k Final and that was after he swam 1500M and cycled 40k. That's impressive!
9. Sailing.....Not really my cup of tea but total respect to Ben Ainslie for winning a Gold Medal at four consecutive Olympics
10. Canoeing.....Gold medal for GB pair Tim Bailie and Ettiene Stott in the Canoe Slalom and not a Duelling Banjo in sight and Ed McKeever wins Gold in the 200M Kayak Final. Apparently Ed has been called 'the Usain Bolt of kayaking', probably by his mum. I am not sure if Bolt has been called 'the Ed McKeever of Sprinting'
There was also success for Team GB in the boxing ring and at Taekwondo, but if I want to watch Men and Women fighting I can just go up Sauchiehall Street on a Saturday night
Some sports even I found difficult to watch. These would include Handball, Water Polo and Equestrian which is really just posh folk on horses
After the excitement of The Euros the Olympic football was a huge letdown. It was like watching my team Ayr United after watching....well, just about anyone. I have to admit to raising a smile however when England/Wales (sorry Team GB) lost on penalties. Some things you just never tire of.
I though the BBC coverage was mostly excellent. I liked Balding, Foster and Thorpe at the swimming. The cycling commentators were also very good and did their best to explain some of the strange disqualification decisions. Michael Johnson was first rate at the Athletics and Steve Cram's commentary on Mo Farah's 5000M victory was superb
My only real complaint would be with John Inverdale. Someone needs to buy him a new book of cliches because the one he has is all used up. I would have liked to put the sycophantic Mr Inverdale side by side with his odious chum Lord Coe on the 80 Metre line for the Men's Javelin competition. Now I would definitely have watched that
Anyway, a lot seemed to happen in just over two weeks and it gave me something to watch before the start of the Premier League this weekend. Go Team Sunderland!
No comments:
Post a Comment