False Tension

Michael Jung was jumping a beautiful round in the final segment of the eventing, with 33.00 penalty points (lowest score wins). He'd been leading from the get-go, so he was the last rider out. First place was currently held by the UK's William Fox-Pitt, at 42.00. The announcer says, "Michael is well under the time, so he doesn't have to hurry, but he does have to take these final four jumps cleanly."

Well, no. He only had to jump two of them cleanly. That brilliant performance was a nine-point lead. Nine points. At four points a rail, he could have knocked down two and still won by one point.

Yes, there were plenty of ways he could have lost. They could have knocked down three rails. La Biostethique Sam could have run out, refused, knocked over the gate that two other horses knocked over, or suddenly lost steam and gone over time. It wasn't going to happen, though, and nobody watching thought it was. So why say something like that for ten seconds worth of contrived tension?

(But I will praise these NBC announcers for this: the horse guys, unlike the golf guys, haven't once told me about a football game.)