Unofficial UK Slalom BBS

For me, two stand out today (Sunday July 29th):

Helen Reeves' Gold Medal for Diplomatic Persistence as she eventually managed to persuade her fellow commentator (who has been doing it for years) that the Qualification is now on best of two runs, not aggregation of those runs - after he had announced on separate occasions that Savsek (after his 2nd run) and Martikan (after his 1st run) now had no hope of qualifying.

Vavrinec Hradilek - not his drift over the finish line on his 2nd run, but his cross-bow rudder on the stopper between gates 7 and 8 on that run.

That cross-bow was quite special - glad I wasn't the only one to notice it!

Congrats to Richard and David after raising stress levels with their first runs. Good luck tomorrow.

Not only special but effective!
Additionally, Hradilek's drift over the line certainly livened up the psychology of the last few runs today. Roll on Wednesday!

John Sturgess wrote:For me, two stand out today (Sunday July 29th):

Helen Reeves' Gold Medal for Diplomatic Persistence as she eventually managed to persuade her fellow commentator (who has been doing it for years) that the Qualification is now on best of two runs, not aggregation of those runs - after he had announced on separate occasions that Savsek (after his 2nd run) and Martikan (after his 1st run) now had no hope of qualifying.

Must admit, he got us thoroughly confused. We started off assuming it would be the best of the two runs, but after his comments we thought maybe Olympics were running on old rules. Then, listening to Helen, it became clear that our first supposition was right. Then the BBC guy does a complete u-turn, but at no point did I hear a corrected explanation or apology

Great to see Both GB guys through to the final, though they gave us same nail-biting moments

I bet non-slalomers were very confused by that guy's commentating, i was willing him to shut up.

it would be nice to hear some more info on the course too - they were saying they don't know any info like how far the course drops (5.5m) and how big each drop is (2m, 1.5m etc) and i'm sure it would be more interesting if we introduced the names - big ben, ben nevis etc.

got everything crossed for lizzie and our C2s today

Thought the pictures in HD were fantastic and Hradilek's cross bow was just brilliant, the Brits certainly had us holding our breath, roll on the rest of the week.

Had Slalom on at work today, so no sound. Was much easier to follow what was happening.

alldaypaddler wrote:I bet non-slalomers were very confused by that guy's commentating, i was willing him to shut up.

Dee wrote:Had Slalom on at work today, so no sound. Was much easier to follow what was happening.

Entirely agree - unless they allow Helen to do it herself. Particularly as a "minority" sport, we need an informed opinion which will actually explain what is happening rather than a generic commentary which tries, and manifestly fails, to pick up on the salient advice/pattern of analysis from the in-sport adviser. Watching the last couple of days, it still doesn't seem to have sunk in that (a) the top part of the course generally appears faster or (b) sometimes you just have to put the boat across the current to set up for the next gate (I knew I was getting it wrong somewhere.)

Visually, the coverage is a treat. The gate close-ups and the slo-mo in HD are fantastic; especially as they mirror my current paddling speed in real time......

The face says it all:



The claw culture ?

http://puconkayakhostel.com/2012/chile- ... inguistics


?

A wee bit late on this post but it was David Vine guys - He has famously got it wrong in all the sports hes commented on over the last 4 decades those of us of a certain age will remember

boatmum wrote:A wee bit late on this post but it was David Vine guys - He has famously got it wrong in all the sports hes commented on over the last 4 decades those of us of a certain age will remember

David Vine is also a bit late to this forum, he died in 2009!!

The commentator is Paul Dickenson, retired Hammer thrower who then went on to commentate on the throwing events.
But why do the BBC get these guys who have no real knowledge of the sport.
He seemed so scared of some silence that he filled it with mindless rubbish that confuses the untrained viewer and infuriates those that know what's going on. Luckily Helen Reeves was there to correct him but she had her work cut out