Olympics

It amazes me that at any other time watching swimming or athletics would bore the pants off me, however every 4 years this global event seems to frame it in such an exciting way that it makes for compelling viewing. I marvelled at the fact that a great swimmer can be the fastest in several strokes e.g. Phelps. I watched the women's pole vault where the intense rivarly between the Russians made the world record jump all the more fascinating. Maybe its the sheer volume of quality competition that the programmers are able to present the games in bite size chunks, cutting between synchro diving to football to javelin, making for great variety and entertainment.

The women's 100 metre hurdles were good drama, the Canadian favourite hit the first hurdle with her leading foot (for actually starting too well and going too fast to lift her leg completely) and went flying into the Russian in the adjacent lane, leaving the American to fly through breaking the Olympic record.

Kelly Holmes looked impressive tactically in the 800 final and 1500 heats. The mens coxless fours 1km rowing was settled by less than 1/800th of a second!

All credit to Athens and the Greeks for staging the event so professionally. Its great the way the media was goading the Greek authorities for not completing all the Stadia and building work in good time, when here in the UK the new National Stadium at Wembley has been such a fiasco, millions over budget and years behind schedule and that's just one building project.

All in all an enthralling event in the historic home of the Olympics.