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More Olymplogging
Jul. 30th, 2012 07:49 pmOddly, it's actually more frustrating to watch events on TV when all sorts of things are going on very close at hand and in principle it would have been possible to attend, rather than when they're half a world away and it wouldn't have been possible anyway. Doubtless that will wear off over the next few days.
Mind you, the ticketing thing is pretty annoying too -- I'm just watching Wickmayer v Wozniacki, on live feed from the bloody Centre Court at Wimbledon (as I type, in a final set game that's gone to a dozen or more deuces), and the place has the kind of pathetically sparse crowd normally associated with modern County Championship cricket. Did everybody who had tickets bugger off after watching Roger Federer?
OK, not everyone turned up for the first half of the double header at Wembley last night to see Senegal v Uruguay, but they missed a good match -- Senegal looked very impressive, and won 2-0 even after having a player sent off for scything down Luis Suarez in a manner that would have had the (thoroughly misnamed) Claudio Gentile nodding in approval. Mind you, it was Suarez, who was booed all night, so the player who clattered him got a round of applause as he walked off. :)
The GB v UAE match was also worth seeing -- the scratch GB team are playing together better now, with Craig Bellamy in particular clearly enjoying himself immensely marauding down the flanks. Still, we missed a lot of chances and for about ten minutes it looked as if it was about to go horribly wrong -- the roar when Sturridge got the third was as much relief as anything.
The men's team gymnastics was amazing -- China never looked like getting anything but gold, but GB ended up with THE BRONZE MEDAL, DAMMIT (but for a successful appeal by Japan it could have been silver). I can remember the days when British gymnastics was basically crap -- muscular Russians were doing one-finger pull-ups on the high bar, fourteen year old Romanian waifs were doing triple back somersaults on the beam while singing the national anthem, and our lot could barely manage a handstand. (OK, I exaggerate slightly.) We've had individual apparatus wins in recent times, but getting a team medal represents massive progress. Well done lads.
Mind you, the ticketing thing is pretty annoying too -- I'm just watching Wickmayer v Wozniacki, on live feed from the bloody Centre Court at Wimbledon (as I type, in a final set game that's gone to a dozen or more deuces), and the place has the kind of pathetically sparse crowd normally associated with modern County Championship cricket. Did everybody who had tickets bugger off after watching Roger Federer?
OK, not everyone turned up for the first half of the double header at Wembley last night to see Senegal v Uruguay, but they missed a good match -- Senegal looked very impressive, and won 2-0 even after having a player sent off for scything down Luis Suarez in a manner that would have had the (thoroughly misnamed) Claudio Gentile nodding in approval. Mind you, it was Suarez, who was booed all night, so the player who clattered him got a round of applause as he walked off. :)
The GB v UAE match was also worth seeing -- the scratch GB team are playing together better now, with Craig Bellamy in particular clearly enjoying himself immensely marauding down the flanks. Still, we missed a lot of chances and for about ten minutes it looked as if it was about to go horribly wrong -- the roar when Sturridge got the third was as much relief as anything.
The men's team gymnastics was amazing -- China never looked like getting anything but gold, but GB ended up with THE BRONZE MEDAL, DAMMIT (but for a successful appeal by Japan it could have been silver). I can remember the days when British gymnastics was basically crap -- muscular Russians were doing one-finger pull-ups on the high bar, fourteen year old Romanian waifs were doing triple back somersaults on the beam while singing the national anthem, and our lot could barely manage a handstand. (OK, I exaggerate slightly.) We've had individual apparatus wins in recent times, but getting a team medal represents massive progress. Well done lads.
