LONDON Reid Coolsaet isn’t one to avoid assessing his performance even when he is, to borrow his words, “out of it.”

The 33-year-old Hamilton native has spent the past 10 months educating — through countless media obligations — the Canadian public on the vagaries, history and impossible demands of his chosen torture. So he wasn’t going to bail out Sunday even right after “bonking” for the first time during a competitive marathon.

If you don’t understand “bonking,” try sticking your finger way down the back of your throat, or spinning in circles until you’re nauseous. You’ll catch his drift pretty quickly.

Coolsaet had trouble keeping down his energy-fortifiying drinks during Sunday’s Olympic marathon, but still finished in the top 30 of an elite field that started with 105 runners from 68 different countries. Only 85 of those even finished the race.

He was third among the three friends who formed Canada’s first full Olympic marathon complement in 16 years, finishing 27th overall in two hours and 16.29 seconds, well off his personal best of 2:10.55. But, almost everyone except the winner, proud Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich, was well off his personal best on the hot (for here), muggy day over a 42.195-metre (26 miles and 385 yards) course that was speed-bumped by tight corners and stretches of cobblestone.

Dylan Wykes of Kingston led the Canadian contingent, finishing 20th in 2:15.24 and Coolsaet’s training buddy Eric Gillis of Guelph, by way of Antigonish, N.S., was 22nd in 2:16 flat.

Coolsaet, the graduate of Dalewood, Westdale and the University of Guelph, set a comparatively good pace through the first three-quarters and had moved from 42nd at the halfway mark to the low 20s before the cumulative effects of lack of hydration and nourishment gave him a rude hello.

“I just was having problems taking down all my carbs because my stomach was getting upset,” he said. “I wasn’t taking enough stuff and it caught up to me at about 23 miles. I don’t regret going out as fast as I did.

“I was moving up, till about 23 miles, then I started going backwards. I think I paced myself pretty well. If I could have taken in the drinks I wanted to take in, maybe it would have been better. But it started coming up a bit. I’ve had that problem in some workouts when it’s been really hot, where I’ve been puking. Once it starts coming up, it’s hard to put it down.”

Canadian officials had been hoping that one, or more, of the Canucks would finally break the oldest record in Canadian track: Jerome Drayton’s 2:10.09, established 37 years ago. But that wasn’t going to happen on this track, not on this day.

Kiprotich overtook early leader Wilson Kiprotich (no relation) of Kenya to win his country’s first medal of these Games in 2:08.01, 41 seconds slower than his personal best. He grabbed a Ugandan flag 100 metres from the end and crossed the line on the historic “The Mall” in celebratory fashion.

Abel Kirui of Kenya was second in 2:08.27, more than three minutes off his personal best and Kenyan Kiprotich was third, more than six minutes slower than he’s run before.

But, aside from the jubilant Ugandan, the real winner of the day was the historic course, which was essentially a 3D tourist brochure running through a funnel of a zillion bellowing Brits and along, among other notables, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Thames, Horse Guards Road and The Mall. What, no Stonehenge?

“It was kind of a neat course,” said Coolsaet. “But kind of tough at the same time. It was an amazing experience.”

COVENTRY What really made this so memorable, as in all great drama, was the complete and utter unexpectedness.

Not just in the final line of the final scene of the final act, but through the entire play.

Canada’s shocking — and there is no other word for it based on the balance of play — 1-0 victory over traumatized France in the Olympic bronze medal game Thursday concluded what was a year-long oeuvre of flabbergasting plot lines, full of twists and turns until the last, and least predictable, development.

It is already a national iconic image: Diana Matheson’s rolling shot entering the French net in the 92nd minute of a game so one-sided the other way that it would have been pulled off the Vegas board by halftime.

And for the second time in four days a Canadian game ended with one team shrieking in disbelieving joy and another writhing on the turf in agony. Only this time, it was not the Canadians with their hands clawing at their heads in horror.

“There are some bronze medals which feel like gold,” Canadian paddling coach Scott Oldershaw had said the day before. He was referring to his son Mark’s canoe bronze, but the description is even more appropriate on this one. Clearly, this was the biggest moment in Canadian soccer history.

It was only a year ago that Canada had been thoroughly dissected 4-0 by France in a World Cup from which they exited after three straight losses. Could have been the same score, same winner, Thursday as the Canadians got across midfield only twice in the second half …. but once was all it took.

“After the World Cup I thought we were done,” said Ancaster’s Melissa Tancredi, the tournament’s co-leading scorer through the round-robin and one of a large corps of veterans who have been at the heart of the national program for years.

“I thought this team…..that was the lowest we ever hit as a team, as an association, and I think it was very hard to come back from that.

“What a turnaround, we’re happy to do it for this country and this sport.”

Soccer, its believers say, is a cruel sport. Justice is not always evenly distributed, but Canada winning when they probably should have lost had a karmic balance to it. They had lost a chance to play for a gold medal when the U.S. scored in added time after extra time in Monday’s semifinal, when the match would have been Canada’s in regulation had there been traditional refereeing.

“I just think we knew we deserved something and we deserved to put the best effort we could on that field even though we were just gutted and had gonzo in the tank,” the totally drained Tancredi said after the game.

“I couldn’t believe it”

Tancredi had exhausted even the fumes she had been running on all game and was removed in the 78th minute in favour of Brittany Timko by coach John Herdman, who can write his own ticket at Soccer Canada now.

The team’s dominant physical presence, and striker of four goals in the first three games, Tancredi was spent after the U.S. heartbreak, as so many Canadians were.

Christine Sinclair, who cemented her place as the greatest Canadian player ever, and one of the greatest in the international game, said that her team thought the emotion of a bronze medal match could carry them through but to their dismay, and fright, they realized before halftime that it could not. The French admitted they sensed the fatigue, and pressed and pressed in the second half, but hit a post, a crossbar, sent several open shots high, were stymied by Canadian keeper Erin McLeod and had a goal stolen by an alert clear at the line from Desiree Scott.

“It was the aftermath of me playing 90-minutes in most of these games,” Tancredi explained afterward. “Yesterday I didn’t even think I could run today. I was just thinking ‘How am I going to pull this through?’ I didn’t signal to the bench, but I think my body did.

“I was thinking , ‘Did I give enough, honestly. And could I have given more?’ But I was done.”

She credited Herdman for turning to Timko’s fresh legs, which had an impact on Canada getting quickly down field for the medal-clinching goal. After some rare, for this game, four-station passing and a bad bounce for the French, Matheson swiped home Canadian history.

“I freaked,” Tancredi admitted.

“This team has been through every single emotion for the past 10 years. We’ve been the underdogs for the past 10 years as well, even though we’ve been ranked in the top 10 in the world. What a way to turn it around.”

Tancredi says she needs to take time off to finish her chiropractic degree, “Finally … and then hopefully come back to this team, whether as a player or staff member.

“I just knew this was my last Olympics and the emotions just swept over me. There’s another World Cup coming to Canada (2015), a huge World Cup. And I would love to be here for that, no matter what kind of role.”

That World Cup in Canada, staged just before the Pan-Am Games so there will be no game in southern Ontario — suddenly takes on a whole different tone.

The lingering effects of the Olympic semifinal, one of the greatest, if not THE greatest women’s football game ever played, will dramatically spike fan interest.

Herdman says that now that the national team has taken a giant step forward, humiliation in the World Cup to the Olympic podium in one year, it must not only maintain that momentum but try to close the gap on the superb and deep Americans. He wants a U.S.-Canada final in 2015, with Canada on the winning side.

The combination of a bronze medal totally unanticipated at the start of the tournament by anyone outside the locker-room, and a World Cup in Canada should stimulate the further growth of the women’s game in Canada. (Not to mention pressuring the men’s program.)

“It’s a crazy feeling, a dream come true,” Tancredi said. “I’m happy we could do it for Canada. This team was such a special team I’m happy we could bring something home.

“And hopefully little girls see it and want to do the exact same thing.”

They already do.

It was an historic medal for Canada, the first ever in soccer, and the first Summer Games team medal for the country since 1936 in basketball.

Diana Matheson of Oakville put Canada on the medal podium, scoring a minute and a half into extra time in the second half, taking advantage of a deflected ball, and finding herself facing an open net. She made no mistake, scoring on Canada’s only shot on goal in the game.

Canada managed just four shots at the France net, while Canadian keeper Erin McLeod had 25 directed her way, just four finding the mark.

Ancaster’s Melissa Tancredi was a key member of the medal-winning team throughout the Olympic games.

The gold medal was won by the  United States.

That means Canada’s full Olympic women’s soccer team can play their bronze medal match against France on Thursday without fear of a pre-game suspension.

The sport’s governing body, FIFA, told the Star its disciplinary committee will not make a decision on a suspension under after the bronze medal match.

Sinclair and teammate Melissa Tancredi made comments after losing 4-3 to the U.S. about referee Christina Pederson. Pederson called a six-second violation on the Canadian goalkeeper that led to the tying goal by the U.S. Canada lost the game in extra time.

“In view of the elements currently at its disposal, the FIFA Disciplinary Committee considers that further investigation will be needed regarding incidents that occurred after the conclusion of the match between Canada and the USA on 6 August at Old Trafford.

“The FIFA Disciplinary Committee is therefore not in a position to take any decision at present. Further information will be provided in due course, but not prior to the bronze medal match between Canada and France on 9 August.”

Star News Service

LONDON You do anything for 22 years — let alone something that demands such total physical and psychological commitment — and it comes to an end, the surprise would be if you DIDN’T cry.

So there was Scott Dickens, uninhibited and unashamed, reviewing the final day of his swimming career through halting sentences and with brimming eyes.

Dickens and his three friends on Canada’s 4 x 100 medley relay team were eighth of the eight entrants in last night’s final — also the last race of many veterans’ careers, including teammate Brent Hayden’s and the incomparable Michael Phelps’ — but the finish was not the story for the Ancaster native on the first day of his 29th year.

The point was the trip between the beginning and the end.

When the Canucks narrowly grabbed the final lane after Friday’s heats, which Dickens wasn’t sure at first that they would, it meant that he could end his career as he hoped he would: on his 28th birthday.

“Yesterday was one of the most emotional days of my life,” he said after Saturday night’s race. “I didn’t even know if we’d make it through and I treated it as if it would be my last race. I remember finishing the race in tears, just looking around knowing I might not swim again, competitively. I broke down in the TV interview and then once I knew we made the final, I couldn’t hold any of the emotion back and I just pretty much collapsed.

“It was one of the greatest moments of my life knowing I could swim the final race of my life on my birthday. I looked around and just soaked it in.”

The curtain came down a full week after he had opened the first day of Olympic competition by breaking his own 100 metre breaststroke record and advancing to the final. He was eliminated in the semi-finals, as he was in the 200 metres later in the week, but on the eighth and last day of the meet, he swam in his first Olympic final.

“When I saw the schedule that was one of my goals: ‘We have to make that relay final’ because I wouldn’t want to be in the stands watching it.

“Swimming in the last session of the last day of the Olympic swimming meet on my birthday is…is…is…it’s like a story, a fairy tale, for me.

“Four years ago I wasn’t at the Olympics and eight years ago I only got one swim. This year I got six, a Canadian record and all best times. I really couldn’t ask for a better way to finish. I can’t say ‘what if?’ I can only look back and just smile.

“I look back on everything and I’m just so happy about the journey.”

His very first race was a 100 metres individual medley at the Ancaster Aquatic Centre, but he can’t remember whether or not he won.

“I just remember loving the water,” he said, fighting without success to hold back the tears. “I’m going to swim recreationally for the rest of my life because I love it so much.

“What I’m going to take away is that I finished with the love of the sport that I started with. I think that’s really important because I had fun every day of my life doing it.

“And I can’t believe it’s over.”