September 16

Today was a bit more relaxed. I finaly found a place to upload my pictures, athough I had to a bit of configuring to do on the host computer. Afterwards, I went to my first competition of the games: fencing, specifically the Men's Individual Épée Finals.

The first event was a semifinal match between Sang-Ki Lee of Korea and Pavel Kolobkov of Russia.

This is called a "bousculade" (scuffle). When this happens, the opponents must return to their starting position.

Sang-Ki Lee had a nervous style, with many feints and light jabs. Kolobkov was more confident and decisive with his strikes, and was the eventual winner of the match. Next was Hughes Obry of France and Marcel Fischer of Switzerland.

Hughes Obry is collecting his thoughts before the bout.

I was sitting in front a very enthusiastic crowd of French supporters. Every time there was a pause, they would chant Obry's name. It felt like a football match! As soon as the pause was finished, however, everyone became silent.

You meet all kinds of people at the Olympics...

Hughes Obry was the winner by 4 points. The next match was therefore between Sang-Ki Lee and Marcel Fischer to determine who would win the bronze medal.

A nice "touche" by Lee.

A nice example of a "coup double" (mutual strike).

After a tough match, Sang-Ki Lee finally got the Bronze. Next was Hughes Obry vs. Pavel Kolobkov to determine who would get the Gold and Silver.

Even though the French supporters were very vocal during this match, Kolobkov eventually won on a technicality (I don't quite understand why, but there was still about one minute left on the clock).

September 17

I didn't have any events planned today, which was good because I had a lot of work to do (in the last 2 days, I took over 250 photos!) I sorted my pictures, kept the best ones for this site and made thumbnails for them. After my hard work, I decided to reward myself with a meal at Doyles, a reknowned Sydney restaurant known for its seafood. Because it was Sunday night, it was not too crowded and I was fortunate enough to get a table without a reservation.

The restaurant is located right in the harbour near the Opera House. This was the view from my table. Quite spectacular, isn't it?

As an entrée, I had Balmain Bug Salad (Balmain is a suburb of Sydney). As you can see, it looks like the facehugger in Alien. For the main course, I opted for grilled barramundi. After such a delicious meal, I had a stroll around the harbour then headed home to sleep.