Dane Bird-Smith’s medal winning walk was unbelievable, totally ridiculous and bloody epic

WITH three kilometres remaining and his hamstrings going, Dane Bird-Smith knew he needed to draw on something special if he was going to win a medal.

Dane Bird-Smith of Australia celebrates winning bronze in the men's 20km walk. Picture: Getty Images

WITH three kilometres remaining Dane Bird-Smith felt his hamstrings go.

At that stage he was in third position chasing a pair of Chinese walkers and knew immediately he needed to draw on something special if he was going to continue Australia’s medal tradition at the Olympic Games.

“I think I dropped my hamstrings with about 3km to go, they had just fallen off the back,” Bird-Smith, 24, said. “So I was walking on nothing.

“I just had nothing left but I hung on ... it was unbelievable, totally ridiculous.”

The 24-year-old Queenslander claimed the 20km walk bronze medal in a career best time of 1hr19min37sec with China’s Wang Zhen taking gold (1:19.14sec) from his countryman Cai Zelin (1:19.26).

“It’s bloody epic, hey,” Bird-Smith said. “I knew coming into this I was in such good shape that I just had to pull it together. I just can’t believe it, totally unreal right now and I’m stoked.”

Dane Bird-Smith celebrates after his gruelling race. Picture: AP

“With the run I have had, Beijing (world championships) last year with stomach bugs and World Walking Cup being so crook so this means so much to finally have a race that went well.

The race changed complexion at the 16km mark when the Chinese pair surged and momentarily caught Bird-Smith by surprise. He was then forced to hold off local hero, Brazil’s Caio Bonfim, to claim for bronze and complete a fairytale Olympic debut.

“They took off with 4k to go, I just knew I’m going to go after them,” Bird-Smith said. “They were the one’s I was watching throughout the race and I wasn’t going to let the buggers slip away, not without a fight.

“As soon as they went, they went hard, they kicked hard, I got caught up a bit in that second pack behind them.

“I probably wasn’t expecting when they went because as soon as they hit they went off like absolute rockets. I reeled them in a bit and was only a couple of seconds behind them the whole way.

Facebook photos taken from Dave Smith's profile of him with his son, Dane Bird Smith who won Bronze at the Rio Olympics.

“Then I had the Brazilian bloke, he just sat behind me and he had the whole crowd behind him but I had my crew, all the Aussies down there and we cheer like bloody champions

“They got me through it as I knew he was coming, I knew he was on my heels but I knew I had stuff left in the tank.”

Bird-Smith is coached by his father, David, who represented Australia at the 1980 Moscow Games and in Los Angeles in 1984 where he produced his best result of 10th in the 20km event.

He was on the drinks table for his son while Bird-Smith’s fiancee’, mother, brother and training partners were all on the course which ran along the beach of the coastal town of Pontal.

Bird-Smith had been labelled a medal dark horse coming into Rio given his rapid improvement over the past three years.

At the 2013 Moscow world championships he finished 11th and then improved to eighth in Beijing last year while he finished fourth at the World Racing Walking Cup in Rome in May despite being ill.

Australia has now medalled at four consecutive Olympic Games with Nathan Deakes starting the trend with bronze in the 20km walk at Athens in 2004.

Jared Tallent won bronze in the 20km and silver in the 50km event at Beijing 2008 before winning gold in the longer event four years later in London.

Dane Bird-Smith celebrates on the podium after the men's 20km race walk. Picture: AP

Originally published as Dane Bird-Smith’s medal winning walk was unbelievable, totally ridiculous and bloody epic