Sports
This 17-year-old kid’s relish with bronze at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas in the men’s time trial is testament to the hard knocks of the journey being as satisfying as the colour of the final reward.
Sunday’s road race will give him another medal shot while Hobart’s Madeleine Fasnacht will try to twin her individual time trial gold with more booty in the women’s road race on the flat coastal course.
Just walking, showering without a chair and being pain-free again was Berwick’s world immediately after a horror crash around his 14th birthday in 2013 when he needed five blood transfusions.
“When I woke up in hospital never did ‘quit’ enter by mind or in those first couple of weeks when my co-ordination was out and I lost a lot of muscle,” Berwick said.
“I didn’t have in my mind at the time that I could get this far but when I started to mend I was very motivated to do something.
“It’s taken three years to advance to my first Australian team and I want to train for more.”
The crashes of the elite Tour de France are televised to the world. Berwick’s was worse just riding home from a club cycling meet when he hit a pothole about 2km from his home in the Brisbane suburb of Wishart.
“I can’t remember the three minutes before the crash but I hit a pothole, popped the front tyre, crashed into a ute and ended up in an induced coma,” he said.
He still has some loss of feeling below the left shoulder but the 15, or is it 16, bone breaks in ribs, collarbone and his spine healed while he pushed ahead with studies at Mansfield State High.
So tight is the cycling community that Victorian riders in Berwick’s age group admirably raised around $1200 to help support him and replace his mangled bike.
The Oceania Under-19 road race champion was shown the way in taxing 31 degree heat by the bubbly Fasnacht.
Hobart cyclist Madeleine Fasnacht takes gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas. CREDIT: Jim Tucker
She doesn’t expect Richie Porte even knows her name but Tasmania’s sole Youth Games performer is hoping her gold is inching her closer to a training ride together once the Tour de France cyclist recovers.
“Having him in the Tour de France, I know the whole of Tassie was excited to see how he went,” Fasnacht said.
“It’s unfortunate the way his race ended (with a fall) but just knowing he’s from Launcestion, from Tasmania like me, from triathlon as I am, is pretty inspiring for me.
“I wouldn’t expect he’d even know who I am but it would be pretty cool to go for a ride with him one time.”
Just as Porte has put Tasmania on the world cycling map, Fasnacht is doing her bit.
“I’m really, really happy with the way the race panned out and a bit surprised considering I was training early on the weekend before I came away with the temperature at one degree,” Fasnacht said.
“I fell, crashed, on some black ice around Hobart so I’m really happy I handled the big change in conditions because I finished severely hydrated last time I raced in this sort of heat (in Qatar at last year’s Under-19 road world championships).”
The Oceania junior road racing champion flipped from triathlon to cycling as Porte did and finds inspiration in the way he has risen from Australia’s smallest state.
Sunday’s road race will give him another medal shot while Hobart’s Madeleine Fasnacht will try to twin her individual time trial gold with more booty in the women’s road race on the flat coastal course.
Just walking, showering without a chair and being pain-free again was Berwick’s world immediately after a horror crash around his 14th birthday in 2013 when he needed five blood transfusions.
“When I woke up in hospital never did ‘quit’ enter by mind or in those first couple of weeks when my co-ordination was out and I lost a lot of muscle,” Berwick said.
“I didn’t have in my mind at the time that I could get this far but when I started to mend I was very motivated to do something.
“It’s taken three years to advance to my first Australian team and I want to train for more.”
The crashes of the elite Tour de France are televised to the world. Berwick’s was worse just riding home from a club cycling meet when he hit a pothole about 2km from his home in the Brisbane suburb of Wishart.
“I can’t remember the three minutes before the crash but I hit a pothole, popped the front tyre, crashed into a ute and ended up in an induced coma,” he said.
He still has some loss of feeling below the left shoulder but the 15, or is it 16, bone breaks in ribs, collarbone and his spine healed while he pushed ahead with studies at Mansfield State High.
So tight is the cycling community that Victorian riders in Berwick’s age group admirably raised around $1200 to help support him and replace his mangled bike.
The Oceania Under-19 road race champion was shown the way in taxing 31 degree heat by the bubbly Fasnacht.
Hobart cyclist Madeleine Fasnacht takes gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas. CREDIT: Jim Tucker
She doesn’t expect Richie Porte even knows her name but Tasmania’s sole Youth Games performer is hoping her gold is inching her closer to a training ride together once the Tour de France cyclist recovers.
“Having him in the Tour de France, I know the whole of Tassie was excited to see how he went,” Fasnacht said.
“It’s unfortunate the way his race ended (with a fall) but just knowing he’s from Launcestion, from Tasmania like me, from triathlon as I am, is pretty inspiring for me.
“I wouldn’t expect he’d even know who I am but it would be pretty cool to go for a ride with him one time.”
Just as Porte has put Tasmania on the world cycling map, Fasnacht is doing her bit.
“I’m really, really happy with the way the race panned out and a bit surprised considering I was training early on the weekend before I came away with the temperature at one degree,” Fasnacht said.
“I fell, crashed, on some black ice around Hobart so I’m really happy I handled the big change in conditions because I finished severely hydrated last time I raced in this sort of heat (in Qatar at last year’s Under-19 road world championships).”
The Oceania junior road racing champion flipped from triathlon to cycling as Porte did and finds inspiration in the way he has risen from Australia’s smallest state.
Comments
Post a Comment