CANOE SPRINT: Three Australian boats will be in action on the final day of the Tokyo 2020 Canoe Sprint competition at Sea Forest Waterway with Australia's men's and women's kayak fours in the semi-finals and on track to secure a spot in the medal races later in the day (Saturday, 7 August).
Olympic Games debutants Jaime Roberts, Shannon Reynolds and Cat McArthur as well as London Olympian Jo Brigden-Jones will be up first in the women’s K4 500 Semi-final scheduled at 11:07 AEST with the top four to progress through to Final A (medal race) a couple of hours later.
It will be the last international racing for Jo Brigden-Jones, who has announced she will retire after these Games.
“It’s really amazing for me to be here, and to think that this is the end of my career and celebrate at an Olympic Games is really, really cool,” Brigden-Jones said.
“Little bit of nerves, little bit of excitement. It’s kind of mixed emotions. We’re quite focused on what we need to do, so we’re not trying to think about the end result, but think about the process that we have to do for our race.”
London Olympic champion Murray Stewart and Rio bronze medallist Lachlan Tame will also line up for their final Olympic race day together with dual Olympians Riley Fitzsimmons and Jordan Wood in the men’s K4 500m and after a strong second place in the heats, the crew has set their eyes on the final.
“I couldn’t ask to be paddling this race with anyone else. I think no matter what happened up to this point, we’re going to put absolutely everything out there. We are obviously concentrated on that semi first but come the final look out I reckon,” Murray Stewart said.
The women’s C2 has been making its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 and on Saturday, Bernadette Wallace and Josephine Bulmer will finish off their first Olympic canoeing campaign in the Final B of the WC2 500m at 12:30 AEST.
“Not everyone gets the medals and not everyone gets to finals but to have a career as an athlete to say I have pushed it along and be a part of history is very special,” Bernadette Wallace said.
“This was the first Olympic C2 women’s race and we are the soil that the seeds are grown out of and hopefully the next generation of paddlers can make a choice, canoe or kayak and I hope we have made that easier for them and whatever we get in Paris, LA and Brisbane will be on top of our shoulders.”
Saturday will be the sixth and final day of canoe sprint racing out at Sea Forest Waterway.
Racing will start at 10:30 AEST with the women’s K4 500m the first Australian race at 11:07 AEST.
See Saturday’s race schedule here
AUS Team Start Times, Saturday, 8 August 2021 – AEST Times
Women’s K4 500m
11:07 AEST Semi-final 1
Men’s K4 500m
11:28 AEST MK4 500m Semi-final 2
Finals B and A
Women’s C2 500
12:30 AEST WC2 500m Final B
Women’s K4 500m
13:12 AEST Final B
13:19 AEST Final A (medal race)
Men’s K4 500m
13:37 MK4 Final A (medal race)
Cora Zillich
