General News
30 July, 2021
Brown narrowly misses Olympic medal
CAMPERDOWN cyclist Grace Brown came agonizingly close to claiming a bronze medal at her maiden Olympic Games campaign on Wednesday.
CAMPERDOWN cyclist Grace Brown came agonizingly close to claiming a bronze medal at her maiden Olympic Games campaign on Wednesday.
The 29 year-old finished fourth in the women’s road cycling individual time trial, with Anna van der Breggen knocking her out of third place as the last rider on course.
Brown was earlier holding silver behind eventual gold medallist Annemiek van Vleuten after completing the course in a time of 31 minutes and 22 seconds.
However, Switzerland’s Marlan Reusser relegated her to a potential bronze medal after a strong ride, before van der Breggen relegated her to fourth in the final stages of the event.
Brown took to social media post-event to express her delight at almost claiming a medal.
“I may not have come away with a medal, but I’m so proud and satisfied with my fourth place today (Wednesday) in the Olympic individual time trial,” she said.
“It’s been far from a smooth lead-in to such a big target race and I really owe a lot to the individuals who went out of their way to support me. I get so much strength from the good people in my corner.
“Thanks (to the) Australian Olympic team and Australian cycling team for an amazing experience. I’m leaving Tokyo with a full heart and great memories.”
Earlier in the week, Brown had finished 47th in a gruelling women’s road race.
She finished four minutes and two seconds behind Austrian gold medallist Anna Kiesenhofer with Australian team-mates Tiffany Cromwell (26th) and Sarah Gigante (40th) also completing the gruelling 147 kilometre event.
Fellow team-mate Amanda Spratt was one of 19 contestants that did not finish the race.
Meanwhile, Bookaar trap shooter Penny Smith was still contesting the women’s trap shooting competition when the Camperdown Chronicle went to print.
Smith was sitting in sixth position, after shooting 120 out of 125 targets, and was on track to reach the final in her debut Olympics.
She finished the opening day (Wednesday) of qualification in sixth position having hit 72 of 75 targets and was just three targets behind overnight leader Zuzana Rehák-Štefečeková of Slovakia.
She then shot 24 out of 24 in round four held yesterday to move into a tie for fourth place with Australian team-mate Latiesha Scanlan ahead, before 24 out of 25 in the final round had her in sixth spot.