Super Soaker Central

A great morning for rowing and GB at the Olympics! Bronze for Anna Bebington, Elise Laverick, Stephen Rowbotham and Matt Wells in the women's and men's double sculls, and an absolutely thrilling race to gold by Steve Williams, Andrew Triggs-Hodge, Peter Reed, and Tom James in the coxless four; amazing push in the last 500m to surge past Australia. Hopefully our crews tomorrow can add more to our medal tally.

Tom James was at my college (graduated 2007). We need him to come back and do a PhD, and more importantly row for us again! He's been victorious in the Boat Race (on about the fourth attempt!) and has just gone and got an Olympic gold, but I think he never did get a Trinity Hall blade.

Whitewater kayaking was more fun to watch, in my opinion. Too bad it ended so early.

I didn't see it. I dare say most would think that though. I only find rowing exciting because I've done it.

However, there were some SERIOUSLY close finishes! Top two in the women's doubles seperated by literally INCHES. The official gap was 1/100 second, but I reckon it was probably less than that.

Did you see Phelps and Cavic in the 200m butterfly? It'll probably be replayed all day, and it should be all over YouTube by now. Pure luck, really.

I've got no problem with rowing, since it's just another form of racing and I've got no problem watching running and swimming. Whitewater is more engaging though.

I think I saw a replay of that swim, it was another ultra-close finish right?

I don't know an awful lot about butterfly, but I think that like rowing, it's one where you you 'surge' with each stroke, rather than having a smooth motion.

it was by 1/100th of a second that Phelps won. (btw holy crap that was amazing)

Jeez... Canada came close to GB in rowing. I live in the same town as the Canadian kayaker Adam Van Kouverden (not sure how to spell it), and took kayaking lessons where he trained. It's quite interesting. He is the defending gold medalist in several events for kayaking.

Butterfly's like the breaststroke in that your hands are always even. Sometimes they're ahead of you, sometimes they're not. Cavic was trying to glide for the last meter or two, but he lost a good deal of momentum while doing that. Phelps brought his hands forward and closed that last distance just in time. Call it good timing if you will (unlike rowing, you can see and somewhat predict when you'll hit the wall), but that stroke seemed unfair.

Britain did well in a few more rowing events. I wasn't paying attention to the types of events so I can't say anything about that... ;p

I really enjoy watching Michael Phelps all day long and them reviewing him and not showing anything else. I don't like to watch ping pong and steeple chase.


Not.

I dunno what coverage is like in different countries. In the UK, if you have digital, you can usually choose coverage of alternative sports. In general, the main coverage chooses finals over heats, naturally.