Olympic athlete wins shiner chasing ‘thief’
RIO DE JANERIO: A Belgian Olympic medal-winning judo star chased down a thief and was punched in the face on Copacabana Beach hours after his win.
Dirk Van Tichelt, 32, who won a bronze medal in the under-73kg judo competition, had been celebrating on the beach when the assault took place.
His training partner’s phone was stolen and he chased the thief before being punched by someone else, says the Belgian Olympic Committee.
The bronze medallist appeared at a media event the following day with a black eye – but still had a smile.
Brazilian media claimed the assault was committed by a local prostitute, but the Belgian Olympic Committee said it was a male attacker.
There have been numerous injuries in the Rio Olympic Games so far, but this is the first known casualty to be reported outside the sporting events themselves.
Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten suffered facial injuries after crashing in the women’s road race, while French gymnast Samir Ait Said broke his leg badly while on the vault, and was then dropped by paramedics as they loaded him into the ambulance. – The Independent
FEMALE cyclist Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and judoka Zack Piontek both experienced Olympic lows yesterday.
Moolman-Pasio was again left disappointed, finishing the women’s individual time trial outside the top-10, placing 12th out of 25 riders in wet and slippery conditions.
In Sunday’s road race she finished in a creditable 10th place which was the best result by a female road cyclist since re-admission.
Her 16th-place finish from London 2012 was the second best since 1992.
While Moolman-Pasio was disappointed with the result it was also the question what could have happened if she had the rub of the green.
“It’s really tough when you come to an Olympics having put so much into it and hope everything comes together but unfortunately that wasn’t the case for me, both in the road race and the time trial,” she said.
“In the road race I had some mechanical problems with my brakes, which I only discovered after the race and then today I thought I has having a nice time trial, I slid out on the first really technical descent.”
Moolman-Pasio was going nicely after the first 10km of time trial, lying in seventh place before she slid and fell, finishing two minutes, 02.69 seconds behind winner Kristin Armstrong of the US.
“It just didn’t work out on the day, it really threw me off, the glutes really locked up then, so I just tried my best, put my head down and kept going,” she said.
“So another Olympic Games done, not the results I was looking for, but I hope that I made my country proud and I am just grateful for all the support from home.”
Meanwhile, the country’s sole judoka, Zack Piontek, was knocked out of the first round, suffering a defeat against Brazilian Camilo Tiago.
Piontek discovered shortly before the start of the Olympics he had a fracture in his left hand which he strapped heavily for his first bout.
Although he felt no discomfort during the fight it did hamper his preparations.
“I didn’t think about any pain or any tiredness, just trying to work out how to get past his defence and how to beat him,” Piontek said.