Getty Images
WINDSOR, ENGLAND – AUGUST 09: Bronze Medallist Bridgitte Hartley of South Africa celebrates during the medal ceremony for the Women’s Kayak Single (K1) 500m Sprint on Day 13 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Eton Dorney on August 9, 2012 in Windsor, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Bridgitte Hartley hurt more than she has ever before during the 500m K1 kayaking final at the Olympics yesterday, but after the race her tears were not from the pain, but for joy after she bagged SA’s fifth medal.
The 29-year-old from Richards Bay collected SA’s first-ever Olympic canoeing medal after a brutal 500m race where she had to recover from a poor start that left her sixth and needing faith in her race plan. However, her strong finish ensured that she secured the medal for coming third.
“This really is emotional. It is what every athlete dreams of. It’s the most amazing thing that has ever happened in my life so far,” she said through tears after realising she had indeed beaten one of the icons of women’s kayaking, Italian Josefa Idem, to grab the final medal.
Ahead of Hartley was Hungarian Danuta Kozak and defending champion Inna Ospenko-Radomska from the Ukraine, but it took a while for the South African to realise she had given SA a medal on women’s day.
“I was really hurting halfway through… really, really hurting, and I thought: ‘I don’t know where I am, but all I can do is to push on’. I crossed the line and I looked at the side and thought I might have got a medal, but I wasn’t sure.
“I saw the Hungarian shouting and I thought: ‘Okay, she has got it.’ Then they put Ukraine up as second on the screen, and I thought: ‘Please, please, please.’ And then they put up South Africa, and I thought: ‘Ah, but maybe they will switch it… maybe they need a photo finish.’ But they did not, and it was: ‘Thank you, thank you.'”
Rhythm
From the gun Hartley looked to be in trouble, and when everyone eased back from their starting effort into a race rhythm, she was sixth, with all the big names ahead of her and Ospenko-Radomska holding a clear advantage.
In a strange quirk of coincidence, this race was held a week almost to the minute after the SA men’s lightweight rowing four won gold over the same course, and Hartley was also on the same side of the course as the SA rowers had been a week earlier.
Her race strategy proved to be similar to that of the gold medal-winning rowers, and by the halfway point, Hartley was feeling the pain as she began recovering lost ground.
She only started moving into contention for bronze after halfway, as the two leaders fought it out for the gold and silver.
In other events yesterday, Jess Roux was a non-finisher in the women’s 10km marathon swim, and Sifiso Nhlapo slipped out of the BMX competition when he ended seventh in his quarter-final.
Although Hartley is the country’s first canoeing medallist, there was a strong SA influence in the gold medal-winning Australian K4 squad, which won gold a few minutes earlier.
One of the team members was Murray Stewart, son of one of SA’s canoeing icons, Robbie, who was the president of Canoeing SA in the 1980s and an influential member of Cape Town’s 1996 Olympic bid.
Sadly, the Stewart family were all at Eton Dorney yesterday wearing Australian shirts to watch their son win gold for Australia.
And tomorrow Stephen Bird, yet another SA-born Australian, whose brother Doug used to paddle internationally for SA, will take part in the 200m K2 wearing Australian colours.
