Day 10 in Rio2016: Laughter, tears and bittersweet emotions
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The 15th of August started with the 10 km marathon swimming, where we could cheer for Éva Risztov and Anna Olasz. The programme went on with kayak-canoe, where only the Gabriella Szabó & Danuta Kozák duo was able to qualify into final A. Our women’s water polo team played a dramatic match against Australia, where the girls resuscitated and got into the semi-final. Wrestler Viktor Lőrincz was as close to the bronze medal as one could be, but in the end he got the worst of it. Finally, hurdler Balázs Baji qualified into the semi-final in defiance of the heavy rain.
The Hungarian kayak-canoe team started their participation in Rio yesterday. The Danuta Kozák & Gabriella Szabó duo won their heat as potential winners should, so they immediately qualified into the final. Unfortunately, Natasa Douchev-Janics (K-1 200m), Henrik Vasbányai (C-1 1000m) and Bálint Kopasz (K-1 1000m) weren’t able to qualify into final A in the other events.
It was time for the Hungarian women’s water polo team to face Australia in the quarter-final. Let’s just say that they spooked us quite a bit. We bet that many people walked out of the room when the score was 5:1 to the opponent. It happened too quickly, but this is where the beauty of sports, competing, and the Olympic Games comes into picture. The Hungarian girls arose from the ground and levelled the score, thus, saving the match and fraying out a penalty shootout.
What happened next was magical. Our girls scored five confident goals, while the opponent missed one, meaning that we won the match and qualified into the semi-finals. “We have a mental power that kept us in the match, thank God! This was like a Quimby concert, where anything can happen anytime. I thought that if we could save the match to a tie, then we would win, because we have two amazing goal keepers. But we also needed luck. This match can give us ease for the semi-finals, so we’ll have less to lose against the USA. Our minimum goal was to play for a medal and this can now give us a big boost” said Coach Attila Bíró.
Then came the most upsetting part of Day 10. Attending the Olympic Games is a big achievement in itself, but it’s very hard to keep calm when tiny matters decide about the fate of a fantastic wrestler. Viktor Lőrincz had a great day and took on everything for that bronze medal he dreamt about. He was in the lead and kept active in the bronze match, but unfortunately the referee saw things differently…
