SILVER-MEDAL DAVIES MAKES SPLASH
Swimming hero hurls water at Chinese official
SILVER medal winning David Davies doused a Chinese official in water after reacting furiously to her attempts to organise him for the medal ceremony.
Davies, who needed medical treatment after coming second in the gruelling 10km open swim, was angry when the official tried to interrupt his press conference and said to her: "Will you shut up, please?"
But the officials failed to obey the swimmer's request and, after more constant harassment, he threw the contents of his water bottle at the female official.
The Welshman then stopped his press conference, in which he had earlier paid tribute to the gold medallist Dutchman Maarten van der Weijden, who overcame leukaemia before returning to swimming.
Davies led for most of the race until Van der Weijden, 27, made a push for the finish line to deny the Welshman the gold.
Cardiff-born Davies, who finished sixth in the 1500 metres pool race last week, said: "Maarten's had a cancer battle in the past and almost had to give up the sport.
"It's almost like a Lance Armstrong story. He's a complete gentleman and a great ambassador for the sport and he's Olympic champion now.
"I said to him at the end that I was really proud of him. He's a really tough competitor, his story's amazing and one that can inspire people. What he has achieved is phenomenal."
Van der Weijden powered towards the finish, winning by 1.5 seconds ahead of the Briton.
Davies's silver medal means he has taken a place on the podium at successive Olympics after picking up a bronze medal in the 1500m freestyle in Athens four years ago.
"This was the hardest two hours of my life," said Davies. "It's one thing to get to the top of an Olympic sport or to get to the podium.
"But to stay focused for another four years and try to stay at the top of your sport - especially in the endurance events that I do - it's really tough and that's probably what I'm most proud of at the moment, that I kept at it for the last four years."
