SportsHounds Senior Correspondent Mike Osborne previews the key medal events for the Australians on Day 13 of 16 at the Paris Olympics.
Thursday August 8 – possible Australian medals = 3 | Canoe sprint x2 | Swimming |
We’ll be getting wet today as Australia shoots for medals in kayaking at the Canoe Sprint venue and the marathon swim in the Seine River.
In team sports the Stingers are in the women’s water polo semi-finals against the USA where a win will see them battle for gold, while a loss will put them in the bronze medal game.
And in the sandpit under the Eiffel Tower Mariafe Artacho del Solar and her teammate Taliqua Clancy are playing a Brazilian duo to reach the women’s beach volleyball gold medal game.
First up is Chelsea Gubecka in the women’s 10km swim in the Seine where the world championship silver medallist is hoping to set a golden tone for the day.
Then we are off to see the Australian men’s and women’s K4 500m go for gold in the canoeing.
07:30-10:30 (15:30-18:30 AEST) – Marathon 10km Swim W – Chelsea Gubecka
Chelsea Gubecka, 25, was the first athlete selected for the Australian Olympic team heading to Paris when she secured an automatic qualifying spot with a top three finish in the Open Water marathon at the 2023 Fukuoka world championship. Gubecka took the silver medal when she finished four seconds behind German Leonie Beck and eight seconds in front of American Katie Grimes. The result and subsequent selection for Paris was a moment of redemption for Gubecka who failed to make the Tokyo Games after finishing 15th in the marathon swim at her Olympic debut at Rio 2016. If she can replicate her form from Fukuoka she could be among the medallists emerging from what everyone hopes will be a clean and ‘poollution’-free River Seine.
13:30-14:00 (21:30-22:00 AEST) – Canoe Sprint finals
13:40 (21:40 AEST) Kayak W4 500m – Alexandra Clarke, Alyssa Bull, Yale Steinepreis, Ella Beere
Although three of the four members in this team are at their first Olympics, they already have a silver medal from the Canada 2022 world championships. Champion surf lifesaver Aly Bull, 28, is the experienced member of the crew competing at her third Olympics in Paris. Ally Clarke says it’s reassuring to have the presence of such an experienced Olympian as Bull in the boat and she is a great confidence boost to her teammates. “It’s a really good dynamic having Aly in the boat,” Clarke says. “She helps control how the boat runs and just settles our nerves.”
13:50 (21:50 AEST) Kayak M4 500m – Riley Fitzsimmons, Jackson Collins, Pierre van der Westhuyzen, Noah Havard
Riley Fitzsimmons is at his third Olympics and chasing his first medal with a crew of Games debutants. They include former AFL player Jackson Collins, former NRL player Noah Harvard and South African-born Pierre van der Westhuyzen, who wants to be the second Olympic gold medallist in the family after his brother Jean who won the K2 1000m with Tom Green in Tokyo. Collins also has the Olympics in his blood after dad Daniel, also a sprint kayaker, went to four Olympics and won silver in the K2 500m at Sydney 2000 and bronze in Atlanta 1996. This new crew won silver in the K4 500m at the 2023 Canoe Sprint World Cup in Poznan, Poland and then finished fourth at the world titles in Duisburg, Germany.
18:00 (02:00 AEST) women’s water polo semi finals – Stingers
Matilda (Tilly) Kearns, 23, went to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where the Australian women’s waterpolo team won gold, as a baby in her Mum’s belly just two weeks before she was born. Twenty-four years later she’s in Paris trying to win more gold for Australia as a member of the Stingers. “We are always chasing that Sydney gold medal,” Kearns said. “They achieved what every young Aussie water polo player is aspiring to.” Kearns came to waterpolo from a background in rugby, swimming and netball. “Water polo is a multi-faceted sport – you combine all the elements of those sports and you have water polo,” she said. Plus she has elite sporting genes. Her father Phil played 67 Rugby Tests as hooker during the Wallabies’ most successful era in the 1990s. “I want to be on top of that podium. I’m not going to settle for much less than that,” Kearns says.
Matilda Kearns’s path to Paris
Women’s Beach Volleyball semi-finals – Mariefe Artacho del Solar and Taliqua Clancy
Peruvian-born Mariafe Artacho del Solar, 23 and her towering indigenous team mate Taliqua Clancy, 32 are the Olympic silver medallists digging for gold in Paris. “We were proud to be on the podium in Tokyo,” Artacho del Solar said. “To take it one step further we just have to trust in ourselves that we have the potential to take it all the way. The goal is definitely to bring back gold this time.” The Beach Volleyball venue is in the heart of Paris in a temporary stadium constructed at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. “It’s so magical. To have the beach volleyball venue right in front of the Eiffel Tower is amazing,” says Artacho del Solar.
Mariafe Artacho del Solar & Taliqua Clancy path to Paris
Michael Osborne has been a journalist for more than four decades including 35 years with the national news agency Australian Associated Press, rising from junior reporter to Editor.
He was AAP Editor for 11 years and served four years as Head of Sport and Racing. He was also posted to London and Beijing as AAP’s Bureau Chief and Foreign Correspondent.
He has worked at six Olympics and five Commonwealth Games, covered tennis grand slams, golf majors, international cricket, rugby world cups and numerous sporting world championships. He also co-ordinated and managed AAP’s teams and coverage at three Olympic Games in Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
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