Athens - South African canoeist Alan van Coller bowed out of the Athens Olympics 500m K1 in a titanic semi-final in which he finished fourth.
The 36 year old from Bryanston, who is a hero and role model to thousands of paddlers, drove himself to his physical limits in the effort to secure a top three finish, and a place in the final.
A gutted Van Coller battled to come to terms with the result, gasping "Man, I wanted that final so badly" as he went through boat control after the semi-final. It was clear that the effort had taken him to extremes of physical exertion.
"But I guess that's sport", he added incredibly philosophically.
"In the last hundred metres I was going in overdrive. The horizon was moving in front of my eyes. There is no way I could have gone any harder", said Van Coller afterwards.
On a day in which the blue-ribbon men's 500m K1 semi-finals produced a number of upsets, Van Coller started the third semi-final against a field loaded with stars including current world pacesetter Adam van Koeverden of Canada, Australian world champ Nathan Baggaley, Bulgarian star Petar Merkov, Swede Anders Gustaffson and Italy's Andrea Facchin.
Van Coller started strongly, and was only 0.8 seconds behind the leader after the first 250m, and in a solid third place. "I started faster than normal, because I had to do something special against such a tough field. I was feeling great at that stage", said Van Coller.
Spectacular charge
As he went into the last hundred metres, the intensity of the race reached a near frenzy, as Baggaley and Van Koeverden frantically tried to outsprint each other to the line. Van Coller was clearly racing flatout, as the field was very tightly bunched at that stage.
Nobody noticed Italian Andrea Facchin in lane seven, until be burst into the final sprint with a spectacular charge that saw him edge ahead of Van Coller by eight tenths of a second, and eliminate him from the final.
In other upsets, star Lithuanian Alvydas Duonela, Israeli ace Michael Kolganov, and US based speedster Rami Zur were all eliminated from the final. More than half of the paddlers that made the Sydney 2000 500m K1 final were dumped for the Athens final.
"I have been going so well in the build-up to the games", said Van Coller. "At this level, the smallest thing makes all the difference. Today I felt that I went well, but that my body was just not quite right. It's a very strange thing, and impossible to predict, but one day your body feels awesome, and others it is just not that sharp", said Van Coller.
"Right now the level is so intense, that there are at least fifteen guys that can stake a claim to a place in the 500m K1 final. There are a couple of guys like Adam (van Koeverden) and Nathan (Baggaley) that have raised the global standard a few notches, and there are also a lot more paddlers racing at a very high level", he added.
