Photo: © Mikkeli Godfree

Tassie devil: The Sid Taberlay diary 2004

24 year-old Tasmanian Sid Taberlay is a man on a mission. The current Australian and Oceania mountain bike champion, Sid is, like so many athletes this year, striving for a berth at the Athens Olympics Games. But his never-say-die attitude, down-to-earth deameanour and a desert-dry sense of humour - not forgetting a bloody big motor! - puts Sid in the best position possible to realise a life-long dream.

• Index to all entries

Athens, Thursday, August 19

A brush with security

I almost got arrested today. Well maybe not quite, but it was a hair raising moment - trying to talk to an armed police officer, whose english was not so good.

Due to the security hassles of coming back into the athlete's village, I've been taking a few extra bottle out and hiding them in the bush - to save coming back into the village for the fluids. Only today when I came back, there was a police officer parked off the road, 20 metres away. I didn't think at the time, darting off the road into the bushes to top up my water bottles. Half way through filling the 2nd bottle I hear some strange voice. I ignored it at first, having my back turned and in the middle of topping the bottle up, then it came across a bit louder, I turned around to see a police officer. He wasn't happy, I couldn't understand, asked if he spoke english, I couldn't understand much of that either. But the sign language was quite clear - "Not here, get going". I wasn't going to argue with an armed man. New hiding place tomorrow!

Until next time,
Sid