TV View: No impartiality on day Olympics regained a little magic

The BBC's coverage has been a little too jingoistic to stomach for some tastes, with the honourable exception of Dan Walker's laidback night-time slot by the Copacabana on BBC 4.

By contrast, RTE’s has merely been parochial and patriotic, not having had the same material as their counterparts on the Beeb, bearing in mind two silvers can’t compete with the second best haul in the entire medals table to date.

Even so, availing of a respite from drug-taking, fight-fixing, ticket touting, politics, mega-money-making up the road from the favelas amid vast swathes of empty seats, not to mention the OCI's embarrassment and the IOC washing their hands of everything unsavoury, yesterday RTÉ just said to hell with it.

Hence, Joanne Cantwell made little pretence at impartiality in fronting their afternoon coverage of the Thomas Barr's 400 metres hurdles final. "We've decided to go all neutral and impartial today," she said, on introducing a competitor from the London Games, namely Barr's sister Jessie!

Born exactly three years to the day before her brother, Jessie drew confidence from her Thomas’s confidence.

“And when Thomas is in a good head space, when his body and confidence come together, he’s a dangerous combination. He’s unbeatable when he’s in that form. I’m feeling hopeful,” she said, before pausing. “And nervous.”

Freak of nature

His hip injury, she reckoned, was a blessing in disguise as it meant he had no expectations other than competing in the heats. “He’s a freak of nature. I’ve haven’t seen anyone like him to hold fitness and to get it back like he does.”

Just as encouragingly, Jerry Kiernan went through the field and concluded: "Every way I look at this, I can easily make a case for Thomas winning a medal."

But by the time they were leaving the studios for Rio, Jessie couldn’t say anything, unlike those being filmed in the Cove Bar in Waterford and the University of Limerick.

Over to Rio and what George Hamilton described as Thomas Barr's "date with destiny".

"Thomas Barr running smoothly . . . Thomas Barr moving well down the back straight . . . Clement leads from Barr . . . Clement still as Thomas Barr continues his run, as smoothly as Thomas Barr does. Now the big question will come as we enter the home straight. Clement is in the lead as we round the bend and Barr is still going well . . ."

Pipped on the line

Except that coming round the bend Barr was sixth. But then he started to reel them in. “Barr coming back to try and get in the top three . . . Barr just pipped on the line for a medal!”

After he confirmed Barr’s Irish record had seen him miss out on a medal by five hundredths of a second, one could hardly quibble with Hamilton’s assertion: “He gave it absolutely everything that he had. It’s just a wonderful performance.”

Back in the studio, replays of cameras on the third sibling, Becky, in the Cove Bar, and an equally animated Jessie in the studio, seemed almost like an invasion of privacy.

“I can’t even put it into words,” admitted Jessie. “I am so proud of him and I know he’s going to be disappointed but he’s going to come away from this so proud and hungry. He’s going to be so hungry for the next Games that he wants that medal. That was such a fast race. That would have won a medal in any other championships. He’s so unlucky.”

Better to have finished fourth than not to have competed at all? “Fourth place, everybody says it’s the worst place to finish,” ventured Sonia O’Sullivan, from bitter experience, “but I always say ‘well, it’s better than fifth or sixth, or seventh or eighth.’ It’s going to inspire a lot of people to believe more in Irish athletics.”

Perhaps Barr, trackside in Rio, put it best after describing it as bittersweet when venturing: “Fourth is perhaps the best and worst place to come outside of a medal.”

Engaging and infectiously ebullient as ever, he had clearly been true to his vow that he would enjoy every moment of his Games. “I was gaining ground on them. If I’d had 405 metres you never know what could have happened, but it’s unfortunately a 400m hurdles race.”

Wide-eyed

Still he couldn’t help but be thrilled by his time, and declared, wide-eyed: “This is the Olympics!”

Indeed, Barr even made these often rotten Games likeable again for an afternoon. That was some achievement, and hopefully there’s more where that came from.

Kiernan, after admonishing himself as “a lousy tipster”, certainly seemed to think so and O’Rourke reminded the viewers that this was “the best sprint performance we’ve ever had in the history of athletics.”

“I think we’ve a superstar,” she added, “and this is only the start of it.”