Alan Hatherly grew to become South Africa’s first-ever Olympic mountain bike medallist, securing the bronze medal within the males’s cross-country occasion on the Olympic Video games on Monday.
Hatherly completed in third place, 11 seconds behind gold medallist Tom Pidcock (Nice Britain) and silver medallist Victor Koretzky (France) within the race held at Elancourt Hill, simply outdoors of Paris.
His efficiency additionally meant that he was the primary Olympic medallist in cross-country mountain bike for any African NOCs (Nationwide Olympic Committees of Africa), in keeping with the Paris Olympic Video games web site.
“I believe it is type of each athlete’s dream to get an Olympic medal, so to attain that right this moment, it is actually unbelievable for me,” Hatherly mentioned within the media combined zone after the race.
“To be the primary African—I may very well be mistaken—I believe the primary African [cross-country] mountain bike] bike owner to get an Olympic medal can be actually a particular second.”
South African cyclists secured medals in earlier Olympic Video games between 1920 and 1956 within the time trial, tandem, group pursuit, and one-kilometre time trial on the observe. South Africa was then banned from taking part within the Olympic Video games for 28 years till it was readmitted in 1992.
Hathlery’s bronze was additionally South Africa’s second medal on the Paris Olympics after the nation secured bronze in Rugby sevens over the weekend.
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In cross-country mountain biking, Hatherly shaped a lead group of three within the males’s race together with Pidcock and Koretzky, however he was distanced after a collection of assaults on the final lap.
“I gave it all the pieces on the market. I may simply barely comply with all of the strikes, however I cleared the chaos within the first lap, stored it secure, and I knew that Tom was going to come back again, and I used to be ready for that second,” Hatherly mentioned.
“It ended up in a battle (of three) for the win within the final lap. I simply didn’t have that two or three seconds that I wanted for the win, however I’m comfortable nonetheless. I gave it all the pieces on the market, and that’s all that issues.
“It is a totally different perspective. You’re preventing for the win and it is fairly tactical, slowing down in locations that we did not decelerate within the earlier laps, after which it was going sooner in unusual locations, simply to place everybody beneath stress.”
Hatherly is the present UCI Mountain Bike World Cup XCO collection chief and likewise grew to become the primary South African to win an XCO World Cup race earlier in July, on the sixth spherical of the collection at Les Will get, France. There he received each the XCO and quick observe races.
He has represented South Africa at three Olympic Video games, beforehand ending twenty sixth place in Rio in 2016, and he completed eighth in Tokyo.
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