Here are my five favourite moments from the 2008 Olympic Games - only the events that I saw live (or as "live" as Prime/SBS showed them, anyway) were considered!
5. Rowing finals
The first three rowing finals resulted in a win to Australia, a win to Australia, and second place to Australia. Certainly the best half-hour segment, in terms of results, that I watched!
4. Softball semi-final
Australia was playing Japan for the chance to play against the US for the gold medal; if they lost they would receive the bronze medal. Australia led 1-0 for a few innings but Japan scored then scored 2 runs to take the lead. The match looked to be over in the 7th and final innings with Australia having 2 players out and no players on base. However our last batter proceeded to smash a home run and the match was tied! The match then became an epic with 5 extra innings played. Despite Australia taking the lead in the 11th innings they ended up losing the match, but it was worth watching just to see that home run.
3. Pole vault
I was pretty tired but decided to stay up for the 4x100m relays and any of the pole vault that Prime deigned to show. They were showing non-live replays of bits and pieces of it until they realised that Steve Hooker had a good chance of winning a medal, and then they immediately went live and stuck with it until the end. My favourite moment was when Hooker was on his final attempt at 5.80m, and went a long way to the right on his jump but still managed to clear it. Although obviously the jump with which he won the gold medal was great to watch too!
2. Men's 100m sprint
Like with the pole vault I was rewarded for staying up late with an amazing performance by Usain Bolt. After his showboating 10-20m before the finish, to see the world record time come up on the screen was just unbelievable.
1. Men's cycling road race
The last hour or two of the race was just brilliant, with breakaway riders building up huge leads but then slowly being swallowed up be the peloton once more. Nearing the end of the race a group of five riders, including the Canberran Michael Rogers, finally seemed to have made a decisive break. A little further on three riders broke away from the leading group (unfortunately Rogers was not one of them) and that appeared to be that for the medals. However Rogers and the other rider who had been left behind started working together to catch the leaders, and the leaders themselves were starting to position themselves for a shot at gold, and the gap started to be reduced. Just as it looked as though Rogers was running out of time the Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara appeared from absolutely nowhere to catch them up, and then proceeded to tow the other two up to the leaders. The speed with which Cancellara caught up to the leaders made the other riders seem like they were out for a Sunday cruise. It came down to a sprint finish and Rogers finished 6th while Cancellara could only take bronze. Deifnitely a case of the race itself being much more memorable than the result!
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