Series 2, Quarter Final 3 Blog

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QUARTER FINAL 3, SERIES 2 (08/03/09)

FRIDAY MARCH 13, 2009

Wow! Well done to Hannah, Emma, Simeon AND David for all making it through to the semis!

On this week’s Duel, Panther and Goliath made the event look easy and the contenders look tiny. Goliath didn’t look like he was putting much force behind those Pugil stick swings, but the other Gladiators (and the contenders) commented that the power behind his blows is phenomenal! Kids, if you want to be as big and strong as Goliath . . . eat well, train hard and don’t forget your vegetables. Goliath eats his every day!!!

I always find it a little difficult to comment on Rocketball. When we initially got to try this game out, the ropes launched us into the air at double the speed, but a problem with the pulleys meant that they had to be slowed down. At the faster speed the game was more dynamic and the mid-air collisions were higher impact, meaning the Gladiator could really get stuck in and make a difference. Once slowed down it seemed harder to make contact with the contender and scores now seem to depend mainly on their aim! That said Predz is consistently excellent at this event and always enforces low scores, so perhaps we should get some tips from him.

Earthquake was interesting! Oblivion played a very safe game, but now that he is ‘Suspension bridge champion of the world” I suppose he doesn’t have to worry too much about his Earthquake reputation. Or perhaps he was worried that throwing Simeon off the platform would result in a loss, as it did for Doom?

This takes me back to my previous comments regarding the physics v rules of Earthquake . . . (which I noticed kicked up quite a stir on the forum last time) ha ha! I suggest that you only read the next “Gladiator geek” paragraph if you are genuinely interested or able to see the humour in this:

So, I have been doing my homework and can conclude that objects with a larger mass at speed have more kinetic energy (that is the energy required to move an object of given mass).

Kinetic energy = half the mass divided by the square of the velocity

Ek = 0.5mv2

What this means in plain English is that if you tie 2 balls together of different mass and throw them towards the ground, the ball of greater mass will hit the ground first. I will leave that as food for thought and await, with anticipation, your forum comments!!

The Wall was not even a contest for the female Glads, both Tempest and Cyclone are so agile that they don’t even climb, but run up the wall. The male contenders did a great job to escape the clutches of Predator and Spartan. What the cameras failed to show on Sunday was the reason that Spartan appeared to have such a slow start. In training Spartan has developed a technique where has does a massive initial jump and with his body fully outstretched he can just about grasp, with the tips of his fingers, a handhold which is half way up the wall. If successful, the contender has no chance, but there’s a 1 in 4 chance that he will slip, meaning he has to start again, as he did on Sunday, hence his interview about a ‘”leap of faith”.

I was sad not to feature in this episode - “Amazon wants to play. Aaaargh!!!!” It’s always the case, all of the Gladiators would love to do all of the events in all of the shows, but we just have to take it on the chin when not selected, which can be tough! So to relieve our frustrations Atlas, Tornado, Battleaxe and I went to the gym that evening and Spartan joined us. The boys always turn a few heads when we hit the gym! Hope you enjoy the pics.