Messages from Olympic gold medal mix-up ran down my battery, says Clarke

The 25-year-old nurse, from Broadbridge Heath, was just about to start his nightshift at Worthing A&E last night when he was mistaken on social media for his namesake who had won the men’s K1 canoe slalom in Rio.

He was bombarded with messages of support on Twitter after four-time Olympic gold medallist Matthew Pinsent tried to send the Team GB member Clark a good luck message.

He ended up sending Horsham FC fan Clarke (@joeclarke) the message instead of the athlete (@joeclarkek1).

People jumped on the conversation on the social media network with humorous tweets much to Clarke’s amazement.

He said: “Initially I was amazed as I thought that an Olympic hero messaging me, albeit accidentally, was fantastic.

“Matthew’s response was hilarious too. As the different sporting groups increased, I did wonder how long it was going to go on for, until I had to go to work.

“My shift was fun as I could feel my phone vibrate in my pocket every 20 seconds. I got hundreds of messages, up until my phone battery died at about 3am.”

See the earlier story and Twitter exchange between Clarke and Pinsent here.

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