Zaahier Adams
South African kayak duo Hamish Lovemore and Andrew Birkett are “super stoked” after qualifying for the Olympics men’s 500m K2 crew semi-finals.
Birkett, 54, is a two-time marathon world champion but is competing in the K2 sprints in Paris with East London teammate Lovemore. The pair qualified for the Olympics by winning the SA Sprint Championships at Germison’s Victoria Lake back in March.
The duo initially finished fourth in their heat behind Australians Jean van der Westhuyzen and Tom Green to progress to the quarter-finals.
It was in the quarter-finals where they hauled out a superb performance to come home second behind Spaniards Adrian Del Rio and Marcus Cooper that ensured their place in the semis.
“It felt like magic in the boat. We all have different goals coming here, like Hamish said. We had some frustrating times in training and in the heat, so it’s just a cherry on top for us to hit a good quarter like that,” said the veteran Birkett.
“We just wanted to beat two boats, (so) to come second, we’re super stoked.”
Lovemore was equally elated by the quarter-final performance and is hoping for a repeat in the semis.
“If we can do another race like this in the semis, we will be over the moon. The whole season the focus has been on K2, so just to be competitive with these guys ‒ we are marathon paddlers, we are newbies and underdogs ‒ so just to feel competitive, we’re super stoked,” said Lovemore.
South Africa’s women’s kayak pair of Tiffany Koch and Esti Olivier managed to qualify for the quarter-finals with a time of 1:52.14, but were unfortunately eliminated at the next stage despite delivering a career-best time of 1:46.40.
Both Koch and Olivier were satisfied with delivering their personal best time despite not qualifying for the semi-finals.
“The heat was quite disappointing because we never had the rhythm we are used to but I think that was just down to nerves, but going into the quarters, we had a much better race.
“We just saw we had a PB (personal best), so you can’t really ask for more,” said Oliver.
Koch feels with a bit more training together they can still achieve great things.
“Obviously, it’s a bit disappointing to not progress to the semi-finals, but we’ve only come together recently and we haven’t had as much training as the other girls,” said Koch.
“I think, though, the performance we put in today, we can be proud of.
“A crew boat requires a lot of time together and we put that effort in for the 2016 Olympics where we lived together for four years, and obviously getting older, life changes a little bit.”
It was not a good day on the athletics track for South Africa after sprinter Benjamin Richardson was withdrawn from Paris 2024 and will take no further part in these Olympics.
Richardson pulled a hamstring in his 200m heat on Monday and was unable to take his place in the repechage heat yesterday. He was also due to form part of Team SA’s 4x100m relay squad.
“Benjamin sustained a hamstring injury in the men’s 200m heats on Monday and has been withdrawn from all further competition,” Team SA chief medical officer Dr Jean de Wilde said.
Lythe Pillay and Zakithi Nene both failed to qualify for the men’s 400m final after finishing seventh and sixth respectively in their semi-finals. Pillay’s time was 45.24 with Nene’s only marginally better at 45.06.
The women’s 400m hurdles was marginally better with Zeney Geldenhuys finishing third in her semi-final with a time of 53.90, while Rogail Joseph crossed the line in a personal best 54.12 to also claim third place in her semi.
The duo faced an anxious wait for the third semi-final to be completed to see if they would progress as the two non-automatic qualifiers, but they were edged out by Jamaica’s Shiann Salmon (53.13) and Canada’s Savannah Sutherland (53.80).