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Home / Sport / Olympics

Our Olympic winners: What they said

Herald online
16 Aug, 2008 09:24 PM3 mins to read

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KEY POINTS:

New Zealand won five Olympic medals in seven hours last night. Our winners gave their reaction afterwards

Valerie Vili - shotput, gold
Paid credit to her coach Kirsten Hellier: "She is the best coach I could ever ask for.

"We have been together for 10 years and
right throughout that 10 years she has done so much.

"We are a great team. I function with her, I don't function without here as far as my track and field is concerned."

Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell - rowing double sculls, gold
Georgina: "We thought rowing can be quite boring for spectators so we thought we'd keep it close.

"It was a good race, we were really happy with it, we knew we might be in with a chance of a medal and didn't really mind what colour. The gold was a bonus."

Carloline, on not being favourites: "It's a different feeling. In Athens there were so many expectations on us, our own expectations. We were current world champions, this time we were total underdogs. It's a different feeling; it's sort of disbelief actually."

Hayden Roulston - 4000m individual pursuit cycling, silver
On his heart condition which doctors told him meant he should quit: "I could drop dead of a heart attack at the age of 99 and the doctors could say, 'See'.

"I'd say I proved my point tonight. I am not saying they were wrong but I am fine now. I definitely have no issues there any more.

"That medal means an awful lot to me; it's pretty emotional. I was pretty emotional even before the race and I gave it my best and I have no regrets.

"To be honest, to do what I have done is something, even though I have had those ups-and-downs I have also had fantastic support.

"My family are all here and they have been terrific and my lady is here too and she has been a real inspiration."

Mahe Drysdale - single rowing, bronze
Drysdale refused to use his illness as an excuse for coming third: "It's an Olympic final. This is what I've been preparing for for four years. It's one of those things. You've got to perform on the day.

"I had a great race and at about 250m the legs gave out on me and I couldn't hold on. All credit to these guys who kept fighting and beat me today.

"I'm not going to make any excuse. I was in as good a shape as I could have been today. I'm proud of my efforts today but obviously I would have liked to have come out with the gold."

George Bridgewater and Nathan Twaddle - rowing pair, bronze
Twaddle on the Australian winners: "The way they dug deep and kept pushing is a testament to them.

"It's disappointing for us. You just don't know what the other crews are going to bring... they were too good on the day."

Bridgewater: "We didn't train for four years... to try and then get third."

- Herald on Sunday, Newstalk ZB

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