Lisa Carrington became NZ's most decorated Olympian with her third paddling gold in Tokyo - and Ellesse Andrews stunned with a sprint silver. Our daily wrap, looking at the fortunes of our NZ sportswomen, continues.
Performances of the day
Ellesse Andrews has sneaked up from almost out of nowhere to grab a shock silver medal for New Zealand in Tokyo.
The young track cyclist’s medal in the keirin on Thursday night took the New Zealand team tally to 18 – equalling the nation’s haul in Rio five years ago. Then, in a second stunner within an hour, cycling team-mate Campbell Stewart won silver in the omnium, and New Zealand had a new record for Olympic medals.
We profiled Andrews in LockerRoom back in 2019, and predicted she could be the bolter at the Tokyo Olympics.
The 21-year-old, whose parents were both accomplished bike riders (Jon Andrews rode track at the 1992 Olympics), couldn’t seem to believe what she’d achieved, either.
“I can’t stop crying,” she said on the inside of the track. "I think in a keirin you just have to get the absolute right balance of physical effort and tactical execution - so to get that right today and get a silver medal is amazing. I'm so proud of myself."
Andrews, a two-time junior world track champion who switched from endurance racing to the sprint squad, used her rare combination of explosive speed and endurance to best effect in the keirin, a race initially paced by motorbike.
She’d taken the long way to the final, going through the repechage to make the quarterfinals, before strong second-placed rides set her up for the medal race.
Andrews was fifth of six riders behind the derny (motorbike) in the final, patiently waiting to make her move towards the front with less than two laps to go. She jumped on the wheel of Dutch rider Shanne Braspennincx in the last lap and in a fantastic burst, almost overtook her on the finish line. Just 0.061s away from gold.
Until then the Kiwi cycling team had underperformed in Tokyo, but Andrews sang their praises for the support they've given her. "I love my team so much. I'm so lucky to be here at the pinnacle event for cycling with them by my side because the support I get is absolutely amazing."
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When Lisa Carrington calls home from Tokyo once a day, there’s always one thing she wants to talk about first. And that’s Colin.
Colin is Carrington’s cavoodle puppy, who came into her life during the first year of Covid. It was a challenging year for the phenomenal paddler – the 12-month delay of the Olympics, a review into the top echelon of her sport, and no international competition.
So when she phones her fiancé, Michael Buck (aka Bucky), back in Auckland, the opening topic won’t always be her races, Olympic gold medal victories – now three from these Games alone - or how she’s feeling.
“Yes, Colin is the most important thing. She just asks: ‘Can you send me a pic of him?’” Buck laughs. “He certainly helped her last year with everything going on.”
It’s impossible to underestimate the pressure Carrington, 32, has been under with the weight of expectations and the disruptions. So Colin has been a blessing.
“It’s nice when there’s something there that doesn’t care about anything apart from loving you,” Buck says.
The dog, who by the way is golden, will have no idea his ‘mum’ became New Zealand’s most decorated Olympian on Thursday, winning the sixth Olympic medal of her career, her fifth gold, in her third victory at these Games alone.
This was the elusive one - the K1 500. The race she’d been striving to claim since the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she won bronze.
“Learning from Rio, you might have the capability to have great races, but to actually execute it and do it is another thing. It’s taken me five years to get the courage to go out there and do something that is really scary and hurts a lot.
“I hate it, but I love it.”
Buck understands the enormity of Carrington’s victory, in the style of all her other race wins on Sea Forest Waterway this week: leading from the start and powering home, untouchable.
“This one has taken a huge amount of effort; she’s focused on this one for so many years. Every year they’ve taken a really big step, and it’s culminated in that moment there,” he said as the race replayed on the big screen behind him.
At the start of these Olympics, her third, Carrington suffered from a bad case of nerves. “She was quite scared, really,” Buck says.
When he spoke to her after her double gold on Tuesday - in the K1 200 and K2 500 with Caitlin Regal - she was trying to process it all, “appreciate it before resetting” for two more shots at gold in her unprecedented four-event agenda.
In their conversation on Wednesday night, Carrington was “really calm” - a portent, Buck felt, that something special would unfold in the K1 500.
Buck watched from the New Zealand Team HQ in the Cloud on Auckland’s waterfront, as he has been every day Carrington has raced. He sat in the packed stand with Viv Walker, wife of Carrington’s coach, Gordon, and the three Walker children.
He looked calm through her semifinal early in the afternoon, applauding as his partner won yet another race. But in the final, he was up on his feet before she’d left the starting blocks, and with 250m to go, his cheers grew louder and more insistent. “Go, go, go Lisa!”
As Carrington crossed the finishline in 1m 51.216s – a tad faster than her semifinal win, and 0.6s ahead of silver medallist Tamara Csipes of Hungary – Buck hugged friends and family.
“Incredible,” was his initial reaction. “To put it all out there, the courage she had to show, was just amazing. To back up after that amazing Tuesday, I just don’t know how she did it.”
Somehow, she did. Carrington climbed out of her kayak and sat cross-legged on the jetty, completely spent. Draped in a cold wet towel, her coach and support crew bent down and hugged her.
Buck phoned Carrington’s parents back home in Ōhope, the Bay of Plenty beach settlement where Carrington fell in love with the water. They’d watched the race at the Ōhope Chartered Club and were raising a glass of champagne to their golden daughter. They’d got off school early – dad, Pat, is the principal and mum, Glynis, a teacher at Waiotahi Valley School in Opotiki, where Carrington spent her young learning years.
Buck was a sportsman too - a competitive swimmer, water polo player and surf life saver (they met through mutual friends in the sport).
“We met the year before she started competing internationally and so we’ve grown through this together,” he says. “The level I got to is nowhere near this, but it gives me the ability to appreciate what she’s going through.”
Over the past seven weeks they’ve been apart, they speak once a day, but text often. “I’ve learned over the years that trying to give advice or my thoughts isn’t necessary. I let her drive the communication and I just listen, and try to make things light-hearted where I can,” he says.
She’s been focused on, but not all-consumed by, this monumental Olympic campaign. “She has a purpose and she lives by that,” Buck explains. “She eats well, but doesn’t count her calories. She doesn’t necessarily look at what times her competitors are doing.
“But she’s refined her thinking over the years, so everything slots in a little clearer. She sticks to her routine and does her journaling every day. Getting her thoughts down on paper, so she can focus on her purpose, not what others expect or hope.”
Buck knows this new distinction in New Zealand sporting history won’t change who Carrington is. “The great thing about Lisa is she’s so grounded and humble. She’s ultimately a small-town New Zealand girl,” he said.
But he hopes new opportunities will arise from it for her. “It’s tough for an athlete with such a finite period to make hay,” he says. “But at the same time, that’s not why she does it.
“There may be times that are quite overwhelming for her when she comes home. But she will be reconnecting with her roots, going home to family in Ohope.”
It’s not over yet, either. Carrington will be back again on Friday to race in the K4 500 heats with her close-knit teammates, Regal, Teneale Hatton and Alicia Hoskins.
The cheers in The Cloud were just as loud for Regal on Thursday. The K2 500 gold medallist finished third in her K1 500 semifinal, which her dad, Teri, knew she would be disappointed with. But she came back to win the B final, ending up seventh overall.
For the record: Carrington has five gold medals and one bronze. She eclipses the five-medal career haul of fellow kayakers Ian Ferguson and Paul McDonald, and equestrian Sir Mark Todd. She also leads the way in gold medals, overtaking Ferguson’s four.
Quote of the Day
"There are no words to describe that feeling of watching him step out onto the biggest platform in the sporting arena. You know in your heart you've done everything possible to prepare for that moment. It's simply time to showcase the work, make memories and have fun doing it." Tina Ball, NZ weightlifting coach after watching David Liti lift a personal best in the clean and jerk at his first Olympics (finishing fifth overall in the +109kg division).
Images of the day
The good news
Kiwi golfer Lydia Ko moved up the leaderboard on the second round of stroke play.
Her experience and aggressive style of play saw her shoot five birdies in the first eight holes, which helped her slowly move up the leaderboard from 16th position overnight.
Heading into the final two holes, the 24-year-old was seven under par, two shots off second equal. But two bogeys meant she ended on ninth equal, five under par and eight shots off the top spot held by gold medal favourite, Nelly Korda from the United States.
Ko will have to finish just as well as she starts if she wants to stay in the hunt for a medal.
The not-so-good-news
Andrea Anacan didn’t progress from her karate-do elimination round at Nippon Budokan, but the 30-year-old no doubt walked away with a tonne of experience from her first Olympic Games. Representing New Zealand in one of the new sports introduced at these Games, Anacan finished fifth in pool B with combined scores of 23.46 in her first kata, and 23.78 in the second.
What the?!
As if winning an Olympic bronze medal at the age of 13 isn’t enough, Britain’s skater child prodigy, Sky Brown, has an audacious goal for the 2024 Olympics.
She wants to compete in both skateboarding and surfing – even though the two competitions will be 16,000km apart. Brown, who was third in the park skateboard on Wednesday, is a mad-keen surfer, and would have to work out the logistics of competing in both Paris and Tahiti, where the Olympic surfing will be held.
Brown is a phenomenon already – just over a year ago she suffered a fractured skull in a training accident and told she was lucky to be alive.
Research has predicted rising temperatures could rule out many cities in the Northern Hemisphere hosting the Summer Olympics.
A study from Professor Alistair Woodward out of the University of Auckland shows only 41 cities, outside of western Europe, could be safe enough in terms of temperature for athletes to compete. Predictions were benchmarked on the 42.2km marathon race – one of the longer endurance events at the Olympics.
This year, there was a decision to move the marathon and race walking events from Tokyo to Sapporo due to heat. And the next two Olympic Games in Paris and LA may also have similar issues. But the 2032 Brisbane Games might be cooler, as they will be held in the winter months.
Rikki's pick
The final step in Lisa Carrington’s drive for four begins, says Sky Sports presenter Rikki Swannell. "With gold medals in the K1 200, K1 500 and K2 500 Carrington has already become our most successful Olympic athlete in terms of medals one.
"Alongside Caitlin Regal, Teneale Hatton and Alicia Hoskin, Carrington will line up in the heats of the K4 500 with history beckoning for a woman with a singular drive and determination."
Who's up on Thursday
GOLF: Lydia Ko, stroke play round three, 10.30am
CANOE SPRINT: Lisa Carrington, Caitlin Regal, Alicia Hoskins and Teneale Hatton, K4 500m sprint, heat, 1:15pm; final 3pm.
CYCLING: Kirstie James, track sprint, qualifying, 6:30pm; 1/32 final 7:16pm
CYCLING: Ellesse Andrews, track sprint, qualifying, 6:30pm, 1/32 final 7:16pm
