SPORT 53
SATURDAY AUGUST 13 2016
Star fans discomfit Mitch
MIKE COLMAN
THERE were some pretty well
known faces in the crowd
watching Mitch Larkin win a
silver medal in the 200m backstroke yesterday.
How do we know this? Because Mitch told us, and therein lies the rub.
Larkin came to Rio as the
reigning world champion at
both 100m and 200m backstroke, but he failed to medal
in the 100m and was headed by
Aussie swimmer admits nerves at big names in crowd
gold medallist Ryan Murphy
of the US in the 200m after
leading at the first turn.
Favoured to win both his
events, he admits the pressure
of being under the spotlight at
the world’s biggest sporting
event was like nothing he had
experienced before.
The very fact that he knew
who was at the pool watching
him proves the point.
“You’ve got other athletes
here tonight, tennis players
and some basketball guys that
know what we’re doing,” he
said. “It’s not that you’re intimidated by them but you know
that they’re watching and you
want to swim up to your absolute potential, so there definitely is a lot more pressure.
“This is the first major international meet that I’ve been to
where everyone is watching.
You can feel it on pooldeck. As
soon as you walk in there’s
cameras, there’s people saying
‘can’t wait to see you swim tonight, can’t wait to see you win
gold.’
“At the World Championships the athletes are exactly
the same but the difference between this and worlds is that
the whole world watches. At
Worlds you might get those
swimming fans and a few of
(the) public in Australia watching, but at the Olympics there
are people I went to school
with that I haven’t heard from
for years saying ‘I saw you on
TV, I saw you swimming’.
“There is always a disappointment (when you don’t
win gold) and it will always be
there, but for me the silver lin-
Cambage
to WNBL
after Rio
No Hayne, no
worries: Fiji
win first gold
JON RALPH
The Fijian side celebrates winning the men's rugby sevens gold medal match against Great Britain yesterday
IAIN PAYTEN
IT might have been Jarryd
Hayne’s dream, but this was a
nation’s ambition, and the
Fijian sevens side showed
emphatically why they didn’t
need the code-hopping star to
secure their first Olympic
medal yesterday.
Underlining their humility,
Fiji sevens skipper Osea
Kolinisau was looking forward
to two things after winning his
country’s first ever Olympic
medal — eating a Big Mac and
getting his phone back from
the coach.
Not exactly a wild
celebration, granted.
But Kolinisau’s chosen
reward also gave the perfect
insight into both the humble
nature of the Fiji sevens team
and why that first medal’s
colour was gold.
Since they first sent athletes
to the 1956 Games in
Melbourne, no Fijian had ever
stood on an Olympic dais but
when rugby sevens was
included seven years ago, most
expected that time the
drought would break in Rio.
Sevens is the national sport
in Fiji and they have duelled
with New Zealand over the
decades as the best team in the
world.
They have been the No. 1
side in the world for past two
years, and while there was
enormous pressure they
delivered: smashing Great
Britain in the final, 43-7.
The team gathered after the
siren and sang a hymn with
tears in their eyes, with the apt
lyrics “We will overcome, we
will overcome”.
Players then humbly knelt
when presented with their
gold medals by Princess Anne.
The streets of Suva, which
had gone ghost-town quiet
when the final was on,
exploded and so did a giant
national party.
Asked for a message to Fiji
post-game, Kolinisau said: “Go
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crazy, go nuts, you deserve this
and this victory is for all of Fiji
and the Pacific Islands.”
Kava flowed, no doubt, but
not for a majority of the Fijian
team, who don’t drink. They
were more keen to attack the
golden arches in the athletes’
village, which had been put off
limits by coach Ben Ryan.
“We have been seeing it in
the village but we weren’t
allowed to go,” Kolinisau said.
“I am really looking forward to
having a Big Mac right now.”
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ing is the learning curve that
comes with it, and that is handling the pressure.”
Larkin said he always knew
the race was always going to be
won or lost in the final 50m.
“I had a lot of easy speed
and felt good at the 100 and felt
like I was a little clear and I
thought, ‘Oh god, I hope I
haven’t gone too early’.
“I was just kicking those
legs with 50 metres to go and
waiting for those flags and seeing what would happen.”
*
OLYMPIC destroyer
Elizabeth Cambage will pass up the
riches of China and America
this year despite her total domination of the Rio tournament.
The 203cm centre masterminded a Rio heist against
world no. 16 Japan, hauling
Australia back from a 16-point
deficit in the last quarter.
That haul was the thirdmost points in a women’s
Olympic contest and Australia’s highest total, with the
prize top of the Opals’ pool.
Cambage, 25 next week, has
claims as one of the top handful of players in the world and
has earned a lucrative sevenfigure total playing in China.
But it is understood she will
rebuff contract offers from
China, the WNBA and Hungary and instead play in 2017 for a
WNBL club.
Cambage is keen to remain
in Melbourne with her mother
after an exhausting Rio campaign involving Asian and European camps.
That lucky WNBL club will
get a player at the top of her
craft after she ensured Australia would finish top of their Rio
pool.
It was also an emotional
moment for coach Brendan
Joyce, with the fifth anniversary of his mother’s death tomorrow.
“That is a hell of a comeback,’’ a relieved Joyce said as
Australia won 92-86.
The Opals take on Belarus
tomorrow morning (AEST).