South African professional mountain bike racer Alan Hatherly won the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics men’s cross-country mountain biking, finishing with a time of 1 hour 26 minutes and 33 seconds on Monday.
Great Britain’s Tom Pidcock clinched gold as he crossed the line nine seconds ahead of France’s Victor Koretzky.
The bronze medal of Hatherly became South Africa’s third medal in Paris and second bronze after the Rugby Sevens over the weekend.
His performance also made him the first Olympic medallist in the cross-country mountain bike event for any African Olympic team.
🇿🇦🥉 ALAN HATHERLY WINS BRONZE!@alanhatherly brings home another bronze medal for #TeamSA at the #Olympics, finishing third in the Men’s Cross-Country Mountain Bike race! 🚴‍♂🔥 #TeamSA #Olympics #ForMyCountry pic.twitter.com/FMHkFUq2en
— Team South Africa (@OfficialTeamRSA) July 29, 2024
At the 2016 Summer Olympics, Hartherly rode at the cross-country event where he finished 26th place before finishing in eighth place at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Wu Shih Yi was handed a walkover in her boxing lightweight round of 16 bout on Monday after Nigeria’s Cynthia Ogunsemilore was provisionally suspended following a positive test for a banned substance.
The International Testing Agency announced on Saturday that the 2022 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist and African Games champion tested positive for Furosemide, a diuretic on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA’s) prohibited list, in an out-of-competition doping control collected last Thursday.
The suspension bars Ogunsemilore from competing, training, coaching, or participating in any activity during the ongoing Olympics in Paris.
