Over the first weekend of the Olympics I was fortunate to attend the Beach Volleyball. Everyone will have his or her opinion as to the merits of this sport’s inclusion in the Games - after all, it was more a party than sport, with loud music after every point contributing to the atmosphere that was more resonant of the Copacabana than Horseguard’s Parade – but the competitive intensity, the excitement and the skill of the competitors could not be dampened by the rain, which did indeed threaten to turn the event into mud-wrestling at one point.