Thaindian News

London, Aug 11 (IANS/CMC) Although they did not win any medals, Bermuda’s eight athletes can return home proud of their performance at London 2012, according to the island’s chef de mission Stan Douglas.

He said misfortune and several near misses made it a “fairly good” Olympics for Bermuda, adding that the island’s athletes had for the most part achieved their pre-Games objectives, reports CMC.

Triathlete Flora Duffy was the unluckiest, falling from her bike on a sharp corner because of slippery conditions in a race in which she had high hopes of producing a strong finish.

Equestrienne Jill Terceira missed the cut for the third show-jumping qualifier by a mere point.

Long jumper Arantxa King suffered a similar fate after tying with Veronika Shutkova of Belarus, who claimed the final qualifying spot as her second best jump was better than King’s.

Fellow long jumper Tyrone Smith reached the top 12 but failed to reach the medal round.

49er sailors, brothers Jesse and Zander Kirkland, produced four top-10 finishes but finished 19th in a 20-boat fleet.

Swimmer Roy-Allan Burch narrowly failed to qualify for the men’s 50 metres freestyle semi-finals.

Burch shattered his previous national record to win his heat in 22.47 seconds, but agonisingly missed out on reaching the next round by two-tenths of a second.

“On the whole, I think we did fairly well and met some of our objectives but of course some things were out of our control,” Douglas told the Royal Gazette newspaper.

“I think in the case of the triathlon our athletes did exceptionally well and our only downfall was the accident to Flora Duffy, which she could do nothing about.

“(Triathlete) Tyler Butterfield’s ride was out of this world because he came out of the water in a poor position but made it up with the ride. He probably carried a number of triathletes with him.

“We also had Tyrone Smith make the long jump final for the first time. He was extremely disappointed not to have made the final eight which would have given the opportunity to jump three more times and try to improve his status.

“Then there was Jill Terceira who was eliminated on her second day of competition but was just a couple of spots away from qualifying for the third round.”

Heavyweight boxer Clarence Hill remains Bermuda’s only Olympic medal winner, having taken bronze at the 1976 Games in Montreal.

–IANS/CMC
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