Taringa’s Dane Bird-Smith wins bronze in 20km racewalk at Rio Olympics

A BRUSH with Brazilian police for father Dave could not take the gloss off Dane Bird-Smith’s bronze-medal finish in the 20km racewalk in Rio.

Dane Bird-Smith celebrates bronze in the 20km racewalk. Picture: AFP/Ben Stansall

A BRUSH with Brazilian police for father Dave could not take the gloss off Dane Bird-Smith’s bronze-medal finish in the 20km racewalk in Rio on Saturday morning.

Nicknamed the ‘Birdman’, Taringa resident Bird-Smith (1:19.37) soared above the pack to finish third behind the Chinese duo of Zhen Wang (1:19.14) and Zelin Cai (1:19.26), fighting back tears of joy as he crossed the line.

The 24-year-old fended off a late challenge from Brazilian Caio Bonfim to take his place on the podium, but more drama was to follow behind the finish line.

Coach and father Dave Smith, an Olympic racewalker in 1980 and 1984, was “bailed up” by Brazilian police post-race in an incident Bird-Smith described as “classic Dave”.

Dane Bird-Smith with father Dave Smith.

“I got my last drink from him with about 900m to go and he was just going ballistic, as you can imagine. From what I heard, he tried to get across the course to come and celebrate at the finish line with me and the Brazilian police didn’t realise that he had his accreditation and they’ve bailed him up,” Bird-Smith, a member of University of Queensland Athletics Club, said.

“He’s alright now, they’re getting it all sorted out but they’ve got to follow procedures at the Olympics and all that so I can’t blame him. You’ve just got to laugh this one off.”

An emotional Bird-Smith said a large support crew had helped him dig deep in the race’s dying stages.

Dane Bird-Smith with his bronze medal.

“I had the entourage there, the Birdman crew, so there was my mum, my brother, my fiance, her best friend, my two best mates from Queensland, my training partners as well from way back.

“There was a huge, huge turnout for the Aussies and the last 2km it was starting to hurt a lot and they were there to keep me going and I just couldn’t be happier to have them there by my side when I was going down to the finish line.

“I knew that Brazilian bloke was coming and he had the whole Brazilian crowd behind him but I had my crew so they got me there. I’m absolutely stoked with the bronze.”

Bird-Smith’s success was part of a magical morning for Westside News athletes, with Brookfield track cyclist Michael Hepburn a member of the Australian team that claimed silver in the men’s team pursuit behind Great Britain.

Hepburn, who won silver in the same event in London, teamed with Jack Bobridge, Alexander Edmondson and debutant Sam Welsford to lead at every time check through to the 3km mark.

However, Great Britain fought back to take the lead with four laps to go, powering home for a new world mark of 3mins 50.265 secs, just ahead of the Australians (3:51.008).

Brookfield’s Michael Hepburn (far left) with teammates Jack Bobridge, Sam Welsford and Alex Edmondson.

“It’s hard to describe at the moment,” Hepburn, 24, said.

“We put so much into this, especially after London and the silver medal four years ago, and we were working for the gold but you know that’s life it’s just a bike race and we can be proud of the silver.

“The plan was to always go out hard and peel with Jack and the key was to not lose pace. We said to the guys to stay on the front for as long as they could. We didn’t know what was going to happen in the last kilometre but we had to try.

“We just needed to have faith and also if you’re riding that quick you’re putting the other team under a lot of pressure and it took a world record to just beat us.”