SportsHounds Senior Correspondent Mike Osborne previews the key medal events for the Australians on Day 15 of 16 at the Paris Olympics.
Saturday August 10 – possible Australian medals = 7 | Athletics 2 | Canoe sprint 2 | Diving | Water Polo women | Weightlifting |
It will be a busy day in and on the water. Australia will be chasing medals in the women’s water polo, the canoe sprinting, and the men’s 10m platform diving before we towel down for some weightlifting and athletics.
Again it’s the women leading the way with a gold medal up for grabs in the women’s water polo, while Fijian-born weightlifter Eileen Cikamatana is in the women’s 81kg division, surf lifesaver Alyce Wood is in the K1 500m canoeing, and there’s Mackenzie Little who throws the javelin a very long way in her spare time, plus new 2000m world record holder Jess Hull in the women’s 1500m. All be chasing a place on the podium.
For the men the 2022 world champion Cassiel Rousseau will try to out-manoeuvre the Chinese in the men’s 10m platform diving and canoeist Tom Green chases his second medal of these Games.
14:00-17:00 (22:00-01:00 AEST) – W Water Polo gold medal game
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
10:30-14:20 (18:30-22:20 AEST) – Canoe Sprint
13:00 (21:00 AEST) W Kayak single 500m final Alyce Wood
In June 2022 Alyce Wood gave birth to daughter Florence. Determined to attend her third Olympic Games in Paris she continued to train well into her pregnancy and shared the data with the Australian Institute of Sport who were conducting research into pregnant athletes and women’s health. Inspired by her mother-in-law and coach Anna Wood – who achieved some of her best results as a paddler after giving birth to her son Jordan, now Alyce’s husband – Wood returned to elite competition in January 2023 at the Australian Selection Trials in Sydney. Now she is into the K1 500m semi finals in Paris.
13:20 (21:20 AEST) M Kayak single 1000m final Tom Green
Tom Green and his sprint canoe partner Jean van der Westhuyzen, both 25, have already won bronze in the K2 500 at these Olympics, after winning the gold medal in their first ever international race as a team at the Tokyo Games. While the K2 is his favourite event, the Green Machine is also contesting the K1 1000m in Paris chasing a two-medal haul, a feat only achieved by fellow Gold Coast lifesaver turned world and Olympic champion kayaker Ken Wallace, who won gold and bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games. “We focused on the K2 but I’m really in good shape and I’m progressing in the K1 – so let’s see,” Green said. He flashes a killer grin and says “hopefully I’ll have another gold medal around my neck.”
16:00-18:30 (24:00-02:30 AEST) – Weightlifting Women’s 81kg – Eileen Cikamatana
Eileen Cikamatana, 24, was just a kid growing up in the village of Levuka on the Fijian island of Ovalau, when her superior strength made her stand out. The kid who comfortably carted bags of pig feed on her Dad’s farm grew up strong enough to lift an adult pig – over her head. Cikamatana is now the world No3 and a dual Commonwealth Games champion. The Fijian/Australian is competing in the 81kg category at her first Olympics under the coaching guidance of Australian weightlifting royalty Paul and Lilly Coffa. “They saw the potential in me and they have taken me to a higher level,” she said. “The Olympics are my dream. So much sweat and tears in the gym. The medals are what we are training for. My hopes are high.”
Eileen Cikamatana’s path to Paris
15:00-17:00 (23:00-01:00 AEST) – Diving Men’s 10m Platform – Cassiel Rousseau
Cassiel Rousseau, 23, is scared of heights but he has a superpower that allows him to spin and twist through the air with the greatest of ease before piercing the water like a bullet. It’s his superior aerial awareness which affords him the ability to spot where he is in the air as he launches off the 10m platform and free falls into the pool below. The French-speaking 2023 world champion from Queensland is in line to collect a unique slice of Games history if he wins the gold medal. His late French grandfather Michel Rousseau was also a world and Olympic champion – in cycling. Grandad won gold for France in the cycling sprint event at the 1956 Melbourne Games and Rousseau is hoping to honour his granddad’s legacy by also becoming an Olympic champion, going down in history as a grandfather and grandson who both won gold while competing for two different countries in two different sports – 68 years apart.
Cassiel Rousseau’s path to Paris
18:30-22:30 (02:00-06:30 AEST) – Athletics
19:40 (03:40 AEST) Women’s Javelin Throw – Mackenzie Little
Mackenzie Little, 27, the world javelin bronze medallist is known as Mack on the sporting track, Kenzy to her friends, Ken to her medical mates and Dr Little to her patients. Throwing the javelin is a side hustle for Dr Little who works at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital. She willingly put her hand up for a week of overnight shifts to get time-off for some last minute competition in Europe before arriving in Paris. With a world No2 ranking and a personal best of 65.70m Mackenzie is probably Australia’s busiest medal prospect and one of the best time managers.
Mackenzie Little’s path to Paris
20:25 (04:25 AEST) Women’s 1500m – Jessica Hull
Jessica Hull, 27, ran into Olympic 1500m medal contention in the weeks before the Games in two world-record breaking nights at the Paris and Monaco Diamond League events. First Hull ran the fastest 1500m race of her life to finish second behind Olympic and world champion Faith Kipyegon (KEN), who broke the world record with a 3min49.04 victory. A fast-finishing Hull set the fifth fastest all-time mark behind Kipyegon, stopping the clock at 3m50.83 to lower her own Australian record by a stunning five seconds. The most impressive aspect of her race was the ease with which she stayed with Kipyegon’s world record pace. “To see my name in fifth (in the world) is nuts,” Hull said. Then in Monaco a week later Hull set a world record of her own in the non-Olympic 2000m event clocking 5min19.70 to win by six seconds. “The way I have trained this year is to put myself in a position to medal in 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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