Will Patten and Payne make it, or are these commentators just ridiculously naive?

[ymu]

Anyone else irritated by Moorhouse and Storey being so clueless about open water swimming? Travelling in a wake is not the same as being hit side-on by one - why on earth do they think Il Chenko likes to swim on the leader's heels, or that the stroke rates of the girls behind are so much slower?

Sad to say, but I think the British girls are going to miss the medals. They've been dragging the others along for 9km...

E2A: Hope I'm wrong, obv

 

[ymu]

'Kin 'ell they're strong. Silver and bronze. Yay!

 

[Flashman]

Fucking hell! That was mint!

 

[ymu]

Aye. They had a great game plan - try and take advantage of the pool-like conditions and not have to adjust their breathing routines for the wake, and hope it was enough. Il Chenko swam a superb race.

The commentators pissed me off (did I say that already? ), treating that lead as if it was in lanes. Very poor - they managed to find some decent Australians to help us out with triathlon and the cycling - in fact, the Australian triathlon guy would have done a better job of explaining the tactics. That's the stuff I really enjoy.

 

[Flashman]

Good interview. What's all that about pulling their legs?? Doesn't sound like cricket.

 

[London_Calling]

Worth watching for the water station malarkey.


They swim their bollocks off for 2 hours continuously, and don't look like they've even climbed a flight of stairs - what is the matter with British yoof

 

[ScallyWag II]

Watching the replay. Never seen an open water race before (except for the swim leg in triathlons), been looking forward to it.

 

[scooter]

Well, I was up all night watching that. Hadn't intended to, didn't even know it was on but it kind of drew me in. Those girls were amazing - the way they stuck together the whole way.

They're young and inexperienced so they could do even better in 2012 (as long as they can get away from that cheating ruski)

 

[TrippyLondoner]

I watched it to. I saw that there was a woman that competed in that race without one of her legs! Good to see we got silver and bronze.The winner of this has never lost one of these races.

 

[scooter]

I saw that there was a woman that competed in that race without one of her legs!

Yeah and didn't she finish 16th?!!!

 

[TrippyLondoner]

Dunno, maybe!

 

[scooter]

Yeah she did - from wikipedia:

Natalie du Toit OIS (born 29 January 1984) is a South African swimmer. She is best known for the gold medals she won at the 2004 Paralympic Games as well as the Commonwealth Games. She qualified to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, becoming the first female amputee swimmer ever to qualify for the Olympics, where she placed 16th in a field of 24 in the 10,000m swim

 

[JTG]

Natalie du Toit made the Commonwealth Games final in 2002 a year after losing her leg.