Olympic Women's Fencing Epee BBC Red Button 20:15 Approx

Obviously, the most obscure sports in the Olympics are the best.

I spent half the day watching the men's road race (cycling) and I did enjoy it but I didn't remember what the Olympics was all about until I pressed the red button and selected the the semi finals of the women's epee.

The first match (bout? duel?) was between Italian and Chinese competitors.  The Italian was the favourite but the Chinese woman had a two point lead when I joined it just after the start.  The Italian was always on the front foot but there was quite a lot of scoring on both sides and she could not catch up until very close to the end.  By the end of normal time it was just back to level terms so an additional sudden death minute was played and the Italian got the first hit which meant instant victory.  The above is a poor description of a gripping sporting match.

Then there was a phenomenon unique to red button viewing which was that the commentary just ended and for a few minutes and the viewer was left looking at pictures of the inside of the arena (which was very dark with just the playing area illuminated) with no clues given as to what was going to happen next.

Patience was rewarded and two more women competitors appeared and the commentators piped up again and the second semi final got underway.  I am always amazed that the BBC can call on experts in every sport to comment over their broadcasts.  This seems a bit suspicious and I quietly believe they have a Commentator Bot 1.1 which is programmed with the rules and terminology of all sports.  It does always seem to have the same voice which is not especially posh and has no regional accent.

This next match was less high scoring but no less entertaining and featured French and Hungarian players, the Hungarian going through to the final (I can actually now report that she went on to win the gold medal!)

Of course I did what one always does when watching these sports: I became an instant expert and nodded sagely along with the commentator bot's observations.

I am now about to watch the medal ceremony and will then be on the look out for more obscure sports to become emotionally invested in.

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