Sideline Sid Sports correspondent & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Sideline Sid and Mrs Sid picked the wrong time for their annual sojourn to the Queensland's Sunshine Coast, with the Rio Olympics in full swing.

Kiwi participation and results is non existent here - with nothing but the glorious results of the Ockers running 24 hours a day on Channel 7.

In terms of television coverage, New Zealand is getting gold medal viewing albeit on pay-to-watch Sky Television, with the Australian coverage restricted to three channels on free-to-air Channel 7.

Australian free to air channels regularly outbid their pay-to-watch counterparts in terms of international sport. The Aussie Rio live coverage is primarily restricted to Australian participation.

While there is a cost to watch the Rio events spread over the dozen-odd Sky sports channels, kiwi viewers have the luxury of live action from just about all the sports in Rio.

Over the ditch we have seen nothing of the kiwi yachting charge for medals and as I write this, have no idea how the New Zealand yachties are faring.

Without Wi-Fi we have been reduced to trawling kiwi friends and family on the Sunny Coast for results.

It was several hours after Mahe Drysdale won back to back gold, that we could celebrate and are still to see vision of his narrowest of margins victory.

We also raised a glass, albeit hours after the race, to Western Bay of Plenty Luka Jones and her silver medal glory. One former Western Bay sportsman we have seen a few times is Joe Kayes, who is a member of the Australian water polo team.

Probably the best viewing action so far for this kiwi sports nut, was when Australia squared-off with the USA basketball dream team in preliminary action.

While the NBL super stars won by by a small margin, it was not without a titanic battle.

Scores were tied after the first quarter with the Aussies in front at half time. The Green and Gold brigade continued to lead before the Americans sneaked home in the last quarter.

With half or dozen or more daily newspapers on sale each day, there is always a battle to win the daily headlines. The best for me so far was the (Queensland) Courier Mail coverage of the men's 100 metre swim final.

The preview opened with "The King v Cam v The Kid" which pertained to USA swim star Nathan Adrian and Aussies Cameron McEvoy and 18-year-old Kyle Chalmer.

Next day, after Chalmer won Australia first gold medal in the event for 48 years, the paper led with "Teen shoots from school carnival to Rio Gold" on the front page.

The following day turned to custard for the Australian swim team. A plethora of Aussie world champions and world record holders, lined up for what Aussie commentators predicted would be a golden day for their countries swimmers.

Just a silver medal was the result on a day that had promised so much. While the Australian swim team finished in the pool with three gold and ten medals in total, it was a long way from pre-Olympic predictions of eight gold.

Predictably the recriminations have started from the Aussie media with calls for heads to roll.

Post Script: Woke up this morning to a rare kiwi result on Channel 7, with the news that the women's Black Sticks had eliminated Australia in the quarter-finals.

Go the Black Sticks