Describe a sporting event you watched that you found exciting.
A card about a match, race or tournament you watched live or on a screen. You do not need to be a sports expert — the atmosphere and the tension carry the answer.
The task card
Describe a sporting event you watched that you found exciting.
You should say:
- what the event was
- where you watched it and who you were with
- what happened during it
and explain why you found it exciting.
Now say it yourself
Record your own two minutes on this card and have it transcribed and marked against the Speaking criteria. Practising is free; the band estimate is part of Pro.
Record my answerHow long you have
- 1 minute
Preparation
The examiner hands you the card, paper and a pencil. Make notes — a few words per cue point, never sentences.
- 1–2 minutes
Your long turn
Speak until the examiner stops you at two minutes. Finishing early is the most common self-inflicted problem in Part 2.
- 1–2 questions
Rounding off
The examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions, then moves straight into the Part 3 discussion on the same theme.
Part 2 takes three to four minutes in total. The whole Speaking test runs 11 to 14 minutes across three parts, and Part 3 that follows lasts four to five minutes.
How to approach this card
Identify the event quickly and give just enough context for a non-fan to follow: who was playing, what was at stake, roughly when it was. One sentence of stakes — a final, a local derby, a record attempt — is worth more than a list of statistics.
Make the setting vivid for the second bullet: a packed ground, a café with a big screen, your cousin's sofa. Mention who was with you and how they behaved, because shared reactions are a natural source of humour and detail.
For 'what happened', choose one or two key moments rather than a full match report. Narrate the turning point slowly, with the crowd's reaction, and use past continuous for the build-up: 'people were already packing up when...'.
The common mistake is using technical vocabulary the examiner may not follow, or explaining the rules for a whole minute. Keep the language accessible and spend the final bullet on why it felt exciting: the uncertainty, the comeback, the shared emotion.
Model answer
Speak your own answer first. Examiners are trained to spot memorised speeches and mark them down — use this to study structure, pacing and naturalness, never to recite.
Show the model answer
The most exciting sporting event I've watched wasn't on television at all — it was the final of a local cricket tournament, played at the ground behind my old school, about two summers ago. Our town's team had never reached the final before, and we were playing a club from the city that had won it four years in a row, so everyone saw us as the underdogs. I went with my father and two of my cousins, and so did what felt like half the town — people were sitting on the grass bank, on car roofs, even on the wall of the petrol station next door. The city team batted first and scored a big total, and for most of our reply it looked hopeless — our best batters were out, and we still needed about forty runs with only ten minutes of play left. People were actually starting to fold up their chairs. Then the youngest player in our team, a seventeen-year-old who works in his uncle's hardware shop, just started hitting everything. My father had more or less stopped breathing, and one of my cousins was watching through his fingers. In the end we needed four runs from the very last ball, the boy hit it over the bowler's head for four, and the whole bank went wild — people ran onto the pitch, someone leaned on a car horn, the lot. The excitement was partly the drama of a last-ball finish. But mostly it was because the win was ours. When you watch professionals on TV, you're excited for strangers. Here, I knew the batter's family, I'd bought paint from his shop, and the next morning he was back behind the counter as if nothing had happened — which somehow made it even better.
Why this works: A non-expert can follow every line: the stakes are set in one sentence, the cricket detail is kept to a few plain terms — batting first, runs needed, the last ball — and the tension is carried by people's reactions — chairs being folded, a father who had 'more or less stopped breathing'. The speaker stays with 'we' throughout, the final bullet finds a genuine idea, the difference between cheering for strangers and cheering for someone you know, and the hardware-shop detail closes the story with a quiet, memorable image.
Useful vocabulary for this topic
- the underdog
The competitor expected to lose; makes any upset easy to explain.
- to be on the edge of your seat
To watch with great excitement and tension.
- the atmosphere was electric
A widely used phrase for an excited crowd; say it once, then show it.
- a last-minute winner
A goal or point that decides the game at the very end.
- a comeback
Recovering from a losing position to win or draw.
- to go wild
Informal phrase for a crowd's explosive reaction.
- to hold your breath
To wait anxiously for something to happen; natural for a tense finish.
Part 3 discussion
After your long turn the examiner moves into a four to five minute discussion on the same theme, working from two related discussion topics with about three questions each. The first stays close to your own experience; the second widens out. Answer with reasons and examples, not one-line replies.
- 1Why do people enjoy watching sport even when they do not play it themselves?
- 2Is it better to watch a match live or at home on a screen?
- 3Should governments spend public money on hosting major international sporting events?
- 4Do professional athletes deserve the very high salaries some of them receive?
- 5How has social media changed the relationship between fans and players?
- 6Will women's sport receive as much attention as men's sport in the future?
More on how this family of cards is discussed: Events and experiences. Model answers for Part 3: Part 3 questions and answers.