Gentlemen's sevens QFs

[gabriel]

Great matches in the quarter-finals. The coverage is so much better than the Ladies matches. The commentary continues in periods when the women's matches were silent (or rather, inconsequential 'noises off').
Great performances from Fiji and Japan in particular. GB very lucky to win against a dynamic Argentinian team.

[gabriel]

Fantastic final and bronze play-off. Fiji and South Africa were so impressive.
It was sad to see so many empty seats all the way through the men's and women's rugby. Unusually the BBC commentary was poor to middling. They clearly didn't take it seriously.

[dom_pedro]

I also thought the BBC commentary was poor. I cannot understand why Sir Clive Woodward was supposed to be the "expert". I did enjoy his attempts to pronounce the French captain Bouhraoua's name though. While Eddie Butler's attempts sounded great, Woodward could only manage "BruWahWah"!

[gabriel]

The most disturbing thing, apart from Clive Woodward, was the myriad empty seats at the matches. I'd have loved to be there.

[AlecW]

I'm afraid it was the same in pretty much every event. Tickets too expensive for the Rio locals to want to pay. Profiteering by the prawn sandwich brigade. It was noticeable that the free (or near-free) events attracted big, enthusiastic crowds (e.g. the Triathlon on Copacabana beach).

A colleague of mine (who was there and who knows of which he talks) said this morning that the Paralympics was going to be a disaster - total apathy from the Brazilians, no money (all spent on the stuff we've been watching for the last 16/17 days), creaking facilities, no sponsorship, you name it. Very, very sad. Given a month or two's notice, I reckon London could put something together...

Lot of stories about poor wiring, plumbing, food and general sanitation in the Olympic Village as well - which is why so many athletes chose to move out.

Still - I enjoyed every minute of it and am now looking forward to getting some sleep!