Joy turns to woe for sprinter Hart (From Redditch Advertiser)
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Joy turns to woe for sprinter Hart
8:00am Thursday 13th September 2012 in Sport
Medal joy: Katrina Hart (left) celebrates her bronze relay medal with team-mates Olivia Breen, Bethany Woodward and Jenny McLoughlin.
REDDITCH sprinter Katrina Hart experienced the highs and lows of the Paralympic Games as she came home with a bronze medal.
The 22-year-old was part of the British relay team which dramatically finished third in the T35/T38 100-metre medley relay last Tuesday.
But in the individual events, the Stock Green speedster suffered disappointment with sixth place in the 100m final and failing to get out of the heats in the 200m.
Even the relay success was not without controversy as an error handing over the baton nearly denied the British four a medal.
After a solid start by Bethany Woodward and Olivia Breen, a dazzling third leg run by Hart had given the home quartet a slight lead but a delay handing over to Jenny McLoughlin cost them vital seconds.
McLoughlin managed to hold off the rest to seal bronze as Russia took gold and China silver.
GB finished in a season’s best time of 56.08 seconds but Hart and her compatriots had a nervous wait as officials checked the hand over had taken place in the designated box.
However, there was relief all round as they medal position was confirmed.
But delighted turn to disappointing the next morning as the reigning 200m world champion produced a disappointing time of 31.04 seconds in the heat to miss out on the final.
Anxious moments followed as she waited to see if she’d grabbed a non-automatic qualifier slot but her time ranked her 12th overall.
“I don’t know what happened out there,” Hart said.
“I’m not sure if it was the relay taking it out of me, I really don’t know and can’t explain it. My legs felt really dead. I didn’t have any spark — I’m very disappointed.”
She is now looking ahead to next year’s World Championships in Lyon, where she’ll seek to add to her three medals she won in 2010.
Lloyds TSB, proud supporter of ParalympicsGB and proud partner of the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Get closer to the Games at lloydstsb.com/london2012
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