Ian Wynne, reduced to walking on crutches after badly spraining his ankle,
battled through the pain for 120 arduous strokes to clinch a thrilling bronze
for Great Britain in the K1 500 metres final.
The 30-year-old had spent Friday afternoon finalising his preparations for
the race when he stepped off the bus after dinner, missed the curb and went over
on his ankle.
In that moment, Wynne's carefully-orchestrated routine was thrown out of the
window - but he never considered pulling out.
This was the Olympic final, there was a medal at stake and he was going to
give it everything.
That he did, powering through the field in the final 250m to move from sixth
to third and snatch bronze by just 12 one-hundredths of a second.
He was even close to silver, but after such a disrupted preparation, Wynne was
content with his lot.
For now at least.
"It never crossed my mind to pull out. Even if it was broken or I was in
complete agony I would have been out there racing," said Wynne.
"There is no way I would have given up on an Olympic final after I had fought
so hard to get there. No way.
"I had made an Olympic final, it was something I dreamed of, and I wasn't
going to go out there and let it get in the way.
"I came here to race and do my best. I am happy with bronze at the moment but
will come back and get better next time."
Wynne, a particularly modest character, rejected the idea his chances of gold
had been hampered by the injury, although it did affect his race early on as he
worked hard to build his momentum.
"I didn't sleep very well last night because I was in quite a lot of pain and
my preparations were disrupted," he said.
"I didn't get into my rhythm as quickly as I normally do. As soon as it
started I just got on with it.
"Every stroke you do you are pushing with your foot on the footrest and it
drives through the body.
"You need that leg strength.
"I was unbalanced, I couldn't rotate through my right-hand side. When you are
driving your leg, your body follows it around and I could get full extension.
"But when I got my boat up and running I adapted a little bit to it and just
kept my head there.
"Maybe if it wasn't there I would have got gold, maybe it was the little
thing that spurred me on and made the bronze happen."
Wynne's gameplan is always to sit back in the first 250m and then explode
through the field at the end.
On Saturday, he timed it just right in a tight finish.
From lying sixth at the halfway stage, Wynne powered through and missed out
on silver by just eight hundredths of a second behind Australian Nathan
Baggaley.
Had his guts and determination not been so profound, Wynne could have ended up
with nothing but he held off the closing Norwegian Eirik Veraas Larsen, who was
chasing his third medal of the regatta after winning the K1 1,000m final
on Friday.
"Halfway through the race I wasn't going to give up. I could see the finish
line, I could see I was going past people," he said.
It was the medal that took Britain's haul for the Games to 27 - and they are guaranteed another from boxer Amir Khan, taking them level with
their total from Sydney - and continued the team's glory on the water after
finishing the most successful nation in both rowing and sailing.
Wynne, although 30, is now looking ahead to Beijing and while he has not
committed to another four years, the desire was still bubbling under the surface.
"Most of the guys out there are probably mid 20s but I am 30 and I keep
getting better and better. Why put a limit on that?" he said.
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