By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Photo Credit: Reuters.
The 14-time Dusi Canoe Marathon champion Andy Birkett and partner Hamish Lovemore produced the moment of magic they’d been hoping for to qualify for their K2 500m semifinal.
The duo struggled in their initial heat at the Vaires-sur-Marne nautical centre, finishing fourth in a time of 1:33.25 and missing out on the top-two spot needed for automatic qualification for the semifinals. That meant passage through to a quarterfinal where they blazed to second place in a time of 1:29.75 to make their way safely through.
“We had a terrible race in the heat. We felt good for the first 250m, but the second half of our heat felt terrible,” explained Birkett afterwards. “We just fell apart and we knew that everything rode on that quarterfinal, so I know we felt a lot of pressure,
“But super-stoked that we felt amazing in the boat, that mid-section in that 500 we just felt so smooth in the boat… that was what we are hoping for, just one good race you can go home happy almost.”
Birkett added that adapting to the sprints rather than marathon paddling has taken plenty of hard work.
“It’s a bit shorter than what we’re both used to. We’re normally used to racing 30 kilometres, two hours, but I think that’s been part of the journey for us.
“We managed to get the spot to come here and we’ve been working our arses off for the last six months with this challenge, so we are super-stoked… that’s about four or five seconds faster than we’ve ever gone.”
The women’s K2 team of Tiffany Koch and Esti Olivier did not progress to their semifinal after finishing sixth in their quarterfinal in a time of 1:46.40. But focus now switches to the K1 1000m event.
“K1 one for me personally definitely is a big one,” said Olivier, who has overcome numerous challenges, including a heart condition, to compete at these Olympics. “I’ve had a great lead-up and I’ve had some good results in the K1 over the last four years for the Olympic cycle, so I’m pretty stoked for it and excited to see what I can do.”
In Athletics track Miranda Richardson ensured she booked a place in the 400m semifinals by running a new personal best time of 50.66 seconds in her repechage.
Later in the evening, there was agony for Zeney Geldenhuys and Rogail Joseph, who both ran the fastest times of their careers so far, but it was still not quick enough to make it through to the 400m hurdles final.
Earlier, neither Lythe Pillay nor Zakithi Nene made it through their respective 400m semifinals. Pillay, who ran a PB of 44.31 seconds at the National Championships earlier this year, finished seventh in his semifinal in 45.24 seconds while Nene was sixth in his in 45.06 – well short of what was needed to progress to the final.
All of athletics, canoeing, cycling, diving, golf, skateboard and sport climbing is being contested.
Team SA start the day with four medals with Tatjana Smith (gold and silver) and the men’s sevens rugby and Alan Hatherly (bronze) putting them at 24th place on the overall table.
For now, the United States (21 golds) lead China (also 21 golds), France (13) and Australia (12) in the standings.