Snowboarding commentary complaints

The BBC's commentary during the snowboarding final which brought Britain's first medal at the Sochi Winter Olympics has led to more than 300 complaints from viewers.

Many were unhappy at the quality of the commentary as Jenny Jones was taking part in the slopestyle finale, for which she won a bronze medal yesterday.

Viewers heard presenters Ed Leigh and Tim Warwood - who were joined by Jones's friend and fellow snowboarder Aimee Fuller - talking over one another and losing their cool.

Fuller screamed and whooped "go on the Jones" after the score for her second attempt of the course initially put her into a gold medal position, and earlier viewers heard Warwood say "I can't look, someone else commentate" as the competitor was about to start her run.

Fuller was also heard to take delight in Austrian snowboarder Anna Gasser having a bad landing because it ensured a medal for her friend. She acknowledged that she should not be showing her partiality by asking: "Are we supposed to do that? Probably not."

By this afternoon there had been 303 complaints although the BBC pointed out it received 53 messages praising the coverage of the Olympics so far.

A spokeswoman said: "This was a truly historic occasion for Team GB and the commentary team were understandably very excited, however we acknowledge that on occasion this excitement got the better of them and this is something that we will work on for future events."

The historic medal win - the first British medal on snow - attracted a peak audience of 3.1 million viewers.

There were also tears among the commentary team with Warwood telling viewers: "You can cry Aimee, it's all right. Both Ed and Aimee crying - and now I'm going. All professionalism going straight out the window here."