Paris Olympics: Australian walker Jemima Montag sprints to bronze in 20km event
- Broke her own national record
- Was fifth at 15km before rushing home
Australian athlete Jemima Montag has won bronze in the 20 km race walk at the Paris Olympics.
The 26-year-old Melburne finished third in a field of 45, behind China’s Jiayu Yang and Spain’s María Pérez, in sweltering conditions.
She finished fifth in the 15 km, but in the last 5 km she sprinted to the finish, just five seconds behind second-placed Perez.
Edit broke her own national record when she crossed the finish line in a time of 1:26:25. This was the second time this year that she broke this record.
She immediately rushed to the aid of Perez, who was exhausted after her finish.
Montag is the second Australian to win a medal in the event, after Jane Saville won bronze in Athens 20 years ago.
Montag is a well-known competitor at major events, having finished second at last year’s World Championships and won gold at the previous two Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018 and in Birmingham four years later.
Jemima Montag adds to Australia’s medal tally after taking bronze in the 20km race walk
Montag’s grandmother was a Holocaust survivor who escaped the horrors of Auschwitz. She died three years ago, shortly before competing in the Tokyo Games.
“I lost my grandmother just before the Olympics and it was only in the months afterward that we were able to really piece together her story as a Holocaust survivor,” Montag told the ABC in 2022.
‘It was something she understandably didn’t want to talk about much, and it caused a lot of pain and trauma.
Earlier on Thursday, Ecuador’s Brian Pintado won the first athletics event of the 2024 Olympic Games, taking gold in the final stage of the men’s 20 km race walk.
Pintado clocked a winning time of 1:18:55, while the lower class medals went to Brazil’s Caio Bonfim (1:19:09) and Spain’s Alvaro Martin (1:19:11).
Jemima Montag broke her own national record en route to winning bronze
Australian Declan Tingay rode in the lead group for the first 15 km and kept going, finishing eleventh in a time of 1:19:56, one place ahead of his compatriot Rhydian Cowley.
The third Australian, Kyle Swan, finished 35th.
Both races were delayed half an hour due to thunderstorms during the night.
Montag and her Australian teammates will be back next Wednesday when the mixed marathon race walking relay makes its Olympic debut.
More to come.
