Editorial: Obscurity to world stage a huge buzz

Iceland caused one of international football's greatest upsets, beating England 2-1 in their Round of 16 knockout game at Euro 2016.

It is often said the reason many people love sport is that you never know what will happen until the final whistle sounds.

We love the David v Goliath matches and it is always satisfying when a minnow upsets one of the big teams (unless, of course, that big team is your team).

A couple of Englishmen in our office have been walking around with pretty long faces after their team's embarrassing 2- 1 loss to tiny Iceland in the knockout stages of the European Cup football tournament.

I know how they feel - being from South Africa, I took a verbal bashing last year when Japan upset the Springboks in the pool stages of the Rugby World Cup.

But it is the unpredictability of sport that makes it so exciting. Anyone or team on their day can be triumphant.

It is those days when the pass that would normally go to ground sticks or the kick that would have gone straight into touch bounces in the field of play that make it worth it.

I am not a big golf fan but I do enjoy watching the Majors, especially when an unknown or amateur shoots up the leaderboard.

There is a great story from Wimbledon this week about 25-year-old British tennis instructor Marcus Willis, who overnight was going up against one of the game's greatest, Roger Federer. Willis, ranked 772 in the world, had to be persuaded by his girlfriend to stick with the game.

In the paper today we have our own tale of someone plucked out of sporting obscurity to go on to the world sporting stage. Abner Waterhouse is an RSE worker in Hawke's Bay who is off to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janiero to represent Samoa in judo.

We wish him all the best, because who doesn't love stories like this?