In her first cycling race, Tofino-native Kiara Bisaro of Courtenay tumbled off the bike and broke her arm. On Wednesday in Melbourne, she landed on the podium at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games with all limbs intact.
"I still won that first race in Courtenay, despite the fall and broken arm, so that was good motivation to keep going, although my parents were not too keen on me continuing in the sport after that," said Bisaro, in a phone interview from Melbourne, following her bronze medal Wednesday in women's mountain biking.
A TV commercial ran nationally on CBC during the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics featuring muddy mountain bikers in Courtenay, the outdoor-sports loving Island community that has sent Olympians Bisaro and Geoff Kabush to Melbourne. (The men's mountain-bike race was in progress at press time).
"There's such a great network up there for riders," said Bisaro, 30.
You know you're a real Island cyclist when you finish second in an event near Nanaimo called the Barf Bash, which Bisaro did in 2001. But the bounding kangaroos, that occasionally crossed the Commonwealth Games course at the State Mountain Bike Park of Victoria in Lysterfield, was a new one even for Bisaro.
"The kangaroos are everywhere," she said. "I've never been to Australia before, so that was amazing."
Wednesday was the culmination of a steady climb as Bisaro -- fifth at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games and 14th at Athens -- captured bronze behind fellow-Canadian and Athens silver-medallist Marie-Helene Premont's gold on a blistering day.
Bisaro was across in 1:57:59 to Quebecer Premont's winning 1:55:04 and silver-medallist Kiwi Rosara Joseph's 1:56:31 and could be excused afterward if she pined for a roll in the cool breakers of Long Beach at her birthplace in Tofino, which she left for Courtenay as a four-year-old.
"I was aiming for silver behind Marie-Helene but didn't have that in me on the day because it was so hot and you could feel it," said Bisaro.
"But it was still great to have two Canadians on the podium."
Not to mention a few 'Roos.
- In the Island shocker of the day, world No. 6 Gary Reed of Victoria failed to advance in the men's 800 metres at the historic Melbourne Cricket Ground. After lowering his own Canadian record three times last year and making the final at the 2005 world track and field championships in Helsinki, medal-favourite Reed placed 10th in 1:47.96 Wednesday and failed to get out of the first round. Before leaving for Melbourne, Reed said he felt great and anticipated ending up on the podium.
Canadian women's 800-metre record-holder Diane Cummins of Victoria qualified for her final by advancing with a 2:03.39 clocking in the first round at the MCG while fellow Victoria PacificSport 800-metre runner Katie Vermeulen fell short at 2:05.29.
- Thirteen-year-old Rachel Kemp of Victoria, a Grade 7 Royal Oak Middle School student drawing considerable notice in Melbourne because of her age, was fifth after the preliminaries and qualified for the women's 10-metre diving final. Team Canada's Commonwealth Games diving coach Trevor Palmatier, who also coaches Kemp with the Victoria Boardworks Club at Saanich Commonwealth Place, predicted a potential medal for Kemp before the Games and she has proved her coach right by positioning herself well for a run at it today.
"Right now, it's the joy of being at a Commonwealth Games for Rachel . . . the pressure of the situation she has been thrust into, at such a young age, hasn't hit her yet," said Palmatier, before the event.
- Former UVic science and Malaspina nursing student Kim Eagles -- an operating-room nurse in
Richmond who honed her aim at the Campbell River and North Saanich gun clubs during her student days on the Island -- won bronze Wednesday in the 10-metre air pistol to add to the silver in 25-metre pistol and bronze in pistol pairs she won earlier in the Games.
