Today hosts Allison Langdon and Alex Cullen were left gobsmacked as Australia’s sevens champions revealed the extent of their pre-Commonwealth Games suffering.
Gold medalists Faith Nathan and Dominique du Toit went straight from the airport to Nine’s studios to reflect on beating Fiji in the final in Birmingham and gaining redemption for the Tokyo Olympics flop.
Nathan admitted that the team “weren’t at our fittest” in Tokyo but left no stone unturned in putting matters right in Birmingham.
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Cullen asked what their fitness regimen was.
“Um, so we have this word called ‘crunning’ where you run while crying,” Nathan replied.
“Our S and C (strength and conditioning coach Tom Carter) is very brutal on us but if it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t be where are right now… you have to keep going and we have another word called ‘ cromiting’ where we are crying, running and vomiting at the same time. Just keep going, keep going.”
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Cullen was momentarily left speechless.
“That is not even being dramatic,” du Toit confirmed.
“I cry just at the thought of running,” Langdon quipped.
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The gold capped an all-conquering year for the Australians after also winning the world series crown.
“To be able to have two golds in our campaign so far it is pretty special,” du Toit said.
“I think it is a huge credit to Rugby Australia and the AIS… it is awesome for us to be able to give back to them and all the people who have stuck by and supported us through our not so great campaign last year, it’s nice we can give back this year.”
Du Toit took particular pleasure in downing arch-rivals New Zealand in the semi finals.
“They are an incredible team with super talented athletes,” du Toit said.
“After going down to them last Comm Games it was special to be able to beat them.
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“We came up against them earlier than expected. We lost to Fiji in a round game so we faced New Zealand in the semi. I suppose you have to beat all of the teams when you want to win a gold, so it was special to beat them and deny them the opportunity of even a silver medal.
“Our celebrations after that game were maybe even a bit more than the final because it was such an intense rivalry between us and New Zealand.”
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