Athens - Heavyweight rowers Donovan Cech and Ramon di Clemente rowed their guts out to win an Olympic bronze - the first ever in rowing for South Africa - against Australia and Croatia at the Olympic rowing and kayak centre at Schinias on the outskirts of Athens on Saturday.
Their effort added to the SA haul of gold, silver and bronze by Roland Schoeman and his golden squad of swimmers.
Cech was retching in agony after the dramatic 2000m men's pair final, the culmination of six years of gruelling training and intense commitment through their sixth place at Sydney 2000 and leading into a bronze at Athens 2004 on ideal water, but extreme heat.
Cech had picked up a lower back problem after the semis.
Few would know how much pain they endured to claim bronze because Di Clemente, the "Italian Stallion", played the problem down.
"We had a couple of niggles, but we don't want to harp on that. We're ecstatic with this. It's been a long and hard grind. I pulled my "mielie" off out there today. All I want to do now is party."
He looked over to where the happy Aussies were being interviewed. "All I can say is that the Boks must beat the Aussies in Durban today," he said.
'Heads took over
Whether Cech would enjoy much of a party looked doubtful, because 20 minutes after the finish he was still man down on the pier, writhing in pain.
"I'm taking heavy strain now," he said. "Out there our heads took over."
Australia's Drew Ginn and James Tomkins, the favourites coming into the final, got off to an explosive start to set the pressure with Croatian brothers Sinisa and Niksa Skelin taking the challenge immediately.
The South African pair got off to a steady start and pulled through 500m in fifth place, 2.25sec down on the Aussies. Still steady, holding back for the final push, they held
their position to 1000m in 3:16.99 and 2.94sec down.
Tough break
Then came the push and they overhauled Germany's Tobias Kuehne/Jan Herzog and the Serbians Nikola Stojic. Their last 500m of 1:36.66 was the quickest in the field that brought them so close to edging ahead of the Skelin brothers, but it was not enough.
The Australians, with Tomkins having turned 39 last Thursday, won the gold in 6:30.76. The Croatians timed 6:32.64 and the South Africans - they held off a
late and dangerous dash from New Zealand pair Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater - finished in 6:33.40.
"It was a tough break, picking up those lower back niggles," said Di Clemente. "The medical team worked four days solid to get us here. But it's not about niggles, it's about getting out there and rowing our guts out.
"Hey, we won a medal. I was getting cabin fever in the Village. Now it's time to party."
