Olympic heartache could see Jonty Clarke quit (From Echo)

Olympic heartache could see Jonty Clarke quit

2:00pm Wednesday 5th September 2012 in Sport By Paul Alton

GREAT Britain hockey star Jonty Clarke is considering his future in the sport following his disappointment at missing out on an Olympic medal.

The GB men’s team lost their semi-final match against Nether-lands 9-2 at London 2012 and then went down 3-1 to Australia in the bronze medal play-off.

The Rochford -born former Old Southendian player will return to his club, Reading, before making a decision.

“I’m going back to Reading and I will let the dust settle a little bit and then make my mind up about various things,” said 31-year-old accountant Clarke.

“Although the Lottery money we get is fantastic, I need to work to support myself and my family now and in the future. There’s a lot of things to think about and I need to work out what I’m going to do.”

Clarke said he was “slightly less emotional” about the Olympics three weeks after the team’s heartache at the Riverbank Arena.

He said it was a huge disappointment because the team did not play as well as he felt they could or should have done.

“I think that is something that we will remember for a long time,” he added.

“But I hope that it’s something that as a group we can learn from and for the guys who continue to play it spurs them onto better things next time.”