Aussie Dane Bird-Smith grabs 20km walk bronze medal behind China pairing Wang Zhen and Cai Zelin

THE father of bronze medal-winning walker Dane Bird-Smith was detained by military police as he tried to celebrate with his son.

Dane Bird-Smith celebrates winning his bronze medal.

THE father of bronze medal-winning walker Dane Bird-Smith was detained by military police as he tried to celebrate with his son.

David Smith, who is also his son’s coach, was stopped at a security checkpoint where he got in an argument with police.

It became heated and he was then taken away.

The Australian Olympic Committee were called and were trying to resolve the situation an hour after the race.

Bird-Smith wasn’t told about the situation until he had completed his media commitments.

The 24-year-old Queenslander had earlier claimed the 20km bronze in a career best time of 1hr 19m 37s with China’s Wang Zhen taking gold (1:19.14sec) from his countryman Cai Zelin (1:19.26).

Dane Bird-Smith celebrates winning his bronze medal.

“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.

“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.

“I just can’t believe it, totally unreal right now and I’m stoked.”

But it was far from smooth sailing. With three kilometres remaining Bird-Smith felt his hamstrings go.

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

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“I think I dropped my hamstrings with about 3k to go, they had just fallen off the back,” Bird-Smith said.

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

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 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.

Dane Bird-Smith said he kept a close eye on the Chinese throughout the race.

“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.

“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 Olympics 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.

Originally published as Aussie Dane Bird-Smith grabs 20km walk bronze medal behind China pairing Wang Zhen and Cai Zelin