It could be down to Ko, the K4 and our silver sprint star to bring home New Zealand's final medals at the Tokyo Olympics. Our daily wrap, looking at the fortunes of our NZ sportswomen, continues.
Performances of the day
Our untried canoe sprint quartet, Olympic 'veteran' Lydia Ko and our new sprint cycling sensation, Ellesse Andrews, have set themselves up for a final medal rush on the penultimate day of the Tokyo Olympics.
Ko, golf's silver medallist five years ago in Rio, fired the best round of the day on Friday to lift herself into medal contention with one round to play. And if a predicted typhoon sweeps through on Saturday and Sunday, cancelling the fourth round, Ko will receive a bronze medal.
Back at Sea Forest Waterway, the New Zealand K4 500 team looked strong in their first race together, where Alicia Hoskin's hair braiding skills apparently played a role.
Well, that’s according to Hoskin's boat mate, K2 500m Olympic gold medallist Caitlin Regal, anyway.
“I guess we have to give a shout out to Alicia’s braiding, that’s a big contributor to this team. So girls in New Zealand, get the braids on tomorrow,” she said, putting the challenge out after they were second in their heat.
They go into Saturday’s semifinal with the third fastest time of 1m 33.959s - not bad for a crew who haven't paddled together on an international stage before.
“It’s pretty cool to finally get into that big boat," said Regal. "You know we’ve all been in different events and we still stayed really tight as a team, so to be able to stay tight today and get on the water, and do ourselves proud, and do the people who have helped us proud, is really cool."
The Kiwis were out in front, setting the pace for the majority of the race, and leading at the halfway mark. Triple gold medallist Lisa Carrington was powering the front of the boat, Hatton's engine was at the back, with Hoskin and Regal slugging away in the middle.
Hungary pipped them at the finish line to win, but that probably doesn't matter much in the scheme of things. Second still meant the team could rest up and focus on Saturday's semifinal.
“It’s amazing to be able to race together. I'm just so excited to finish the Olympics with these girls, and do our best tomorrow,” said Carrington.
All eyes have been on Carrington and Regal this week on Sea Forest Waterway, but Hoskins and Hatton bring their own championship experience and power to round out an impressive combination.
At 21, Hoskin is the youngest of the four-women crew, and has already shown sheer willpower to steer her canoeing career back on track.
Four years ago she was meant to be racing at the 2017 junior world championships in Romania. But two weeks before leaving, Hoskin went for a cardiac assessment, and more tests revealed she had Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome - a condition where there are extra electrical pathways in the heart which can cause a rapid heartbeat and sometimes heart failure.
The 17-year-old had to swap the water for surgery to help alter the tissue in her heart sending incorrect electrical signals.
The operation was a success, but it would take another four months for Hoskin get back on the water, having to start over again. Her persistence paid off, and in 2018 she moved from Gisborne to Auckland to train with Canoe Sport NZ's high performance team - the women she is bunking in with at her first Olympic Games.
“I think there’s something special about combining forces at the end of the week," said Hoskin. "This is our final regatta and we’re doing it together... we have each other's back and I guess we’re just taking it one race at a time."
In 2019, Hoskin raced with Regal at the world champs in the K2 500m, where they finished ninth. Last year she was awarded the canoe sprint athlete of the year at the Canoe Racing New Zealand awards. Being mentored by Regal and Carrington for the last couple of years has worked wonders for her.
Hatton, now a two-time Olympian, brings resilience and experience to the squad. The 31-year-old worked her way back into the Olympic team, after leaving the sport four years ago.
Having been to the 2012 London Olympics (she finished 15th), the paramedic knows what to expect in these big pressure moments. She has world titles in the K1 1000m and K1 5000m to her name, and in 2015 she won a world title in surf ski racing.
And it’s not just on the water where the Aucklander succeeds. Her CV boasts a commerce degree majoring in commercial law, and a health science degree in paramedicine. And not wanting to stop there, she also has two postgraduate qualifications in intensive care and paramedicine.
Last year she returned to canoe sprint, and now she is heading into a semifinal, and ideally a final, with her teammates.
Hatton says she’s been gaining confidence throughout the week, watching her teammates “crush it”.
"Yeah it was pretty exciting and it certainly gave me a lot of confidence jumping in and knowing that I can help them get across the line and vice versa.”
***
Lydia Ko has finally got her groove on at the Kasumigaseki Country Club.
In the third round of stroke play, the 2016 silver medallist shot five under for the day, for a best round of 66. She now sits at 10 under, sharing third place with three other golfers.
Ko was happy with her overall performance. “I played really solid today, I gave myself good opportunities. I tried to stay cool, which is also a very important part of just being out there, she said after temperatures soared out on the course.
“I played really solid yesterday as well. I was disappointed with the way I finished my round, and I was hoping that wasn’t going to feed into the way I was going to approach today. Especially not knowing how many holes we were going to play.”
She took a big leap up the scoreboard from ninth place after round two, and a much improved back nine helped her stay in medal contention.
The former world No.1 hopes she will get a chance to “go for it tomorrow.”
“Just with golf you never know right? I could end up falling further behind or I could be standing on the podium,” she said.
Ko made up the most ground of the top 10 competitors on Friday, who are still being led by United States golfer Nelly Korda - she has a three-shot lead from India’s Aditi Ashok, who is two shots ahead of Ko.
Korda may have been hoping the fourth round would be cancelled, and the medals awarded after round three, which was being discussed between officials during the day, with a typhoon on the horizon. “I saw the weather forecast is a little better than what it looked like a couple of days ago, so fingers crossed,” Ko said.
Thankfully her caddie, Derek Kistler, is helping her to keep her cool.
“[He’s] passing me my umbrella pretty much every time I’m not playing a shot, filling up my ice bag, staying hydrated,” said Ko. “I think you just have to bring out 110 percent of everything you got, and you’re still trying to survive out there.”
Ko's winning form earlier this year is giving her confidence to be back in the “winner’s circle.” She won the LPGA Lotte championship in April.
“I felt like I was close, but sometimes when you get closer you put more pressure on yourself,” said Ko. “I guess this week the circumstances are a little different, I’m not just playing for myself, or for my team, I’m playing for New Zealand.
“Even though I do it on a daily basis, this is different. I want to do better for them. Sometimes I’m stressing and grinding more because I know how much it would mean for our country.”
If Ko can come out on Saturday for the final round with the same consistency, or even step it up another notch, she will be knocking on the door of another medal.
Quote of the Day
"Not many people get to say they’re an Olympian. I was joking, you know I don’t know how much of an athlete I am, but I am definitely a two-time Olympian." Lydia Ko after round three of the women's golf stroke play.
Images of the day
The good news
Ellesse Andrews, our latest Olympic silver medallist in the keirin, has backed up her performance at the Izu Velodrome and gone through to the top eight in the women's sprint. She had to ride all three races on Friday to advance, but the talented 21-year-old beat China's Shanju Bao in the repechage round to keep her medal hopes alive.
Fellow Kiwi rider Kirstie James was unable to progress, finishing her Olympic campaign in 27th. And New Zealand's madison pair of Jessie Hodges and Rushlee Buchanan finished 11th in their final..
A New Zealander will play for bronze in the women’s waterpolo on Saturday, but for Hungary.
Rebecca Parks, who grew up playing water polo in Mt Maunganui, went to play professionally in Hungary in 2014 and has been there ever since. Her connection came via the Hungarian coach, Attila Bíró, who previously coached the New Zealand women’s team
And then there’s Bronte Halligan, a star in the Australian waterpolo side with strong Kiwi bonds. Her dad is former Kiwis and Bulldogs winger Daryl Halligan, one of the great points scorers in NRL history. Bronte, who has been on a scholarship at UCLA after missing the Rio Olympics, will play off for fifth with the Aussie side on Saturday.
What the?!
We know you're tired, but no, you're not seeing double. Vying for medals in the rhythmic gymnastics individual all-round competition are identical twins, Dina and Arina Averina. How can you tell the Russian Olympic Committee sisters apart? Arina a scar above her right eye, after an accident with a gymnastics club.
They're actually one of eight sets of twins competing in the same events together in Tokyo, including Russian basketballers Olga and Evgeniia Frolkina, artistic swimmers Laura and Charlotte Tremble of France, and British artistic gymnastics bronze medallists Jennifer and Jessica Gadirova.
A 14-year-old diver has stepped on to her first international platform - and won an Olympic gold medal.
Quan Hongchan - the youngest member of the 431-strong Chinese team in Tokyo - is the new champion of the women’s 10m platform event.
Not only was she well and truly looking the goods throughout the competition, blowing the Olympic record out of the water, she also scored a rare perfect 10 from all the judges in two out of five rounds. The silver medallist, Chen Yuxi, also from China, is only 15 years old.
Rikki's pick
Because it’s the penultimate day of the Games, and this is the last Rikki’s Pick with only a handful of events to go, Rikki Swannell has gone with "all the wonderful Kiwi women remaining in competition".
- Lydia Ko, in a four-way tie for the bronze medal, needs the weather gods to smile and keep a tropical storm away so they can play the final round.
- The women’s canoe sprint K4 hoping to create more history and help Lisa Carrington to a fourth gold medal.
- Track cyclist Ellesse Andrews, who wowed us with her silver medal in the keirin, is back in action in the sprint. The effervescent Holly Edmonston will race the omnium on Sunday.
- Camille Buscomb runs the gut-busting 10,000m in the Olympic Stadium.
"Don’t fall off the wagon now NZ, there’s still a few more athletes to see home!"
Who's up this weekend
Saturday
GOLF: Lydia Ko, stroke play round four, 10:30am
CANOE SPRINT: Lisa Carrington, Caitlin Regal, Alicia Hoskin and Teneale Hatton, K4 500m sprint semifinal, 1.07pm; final, 3pm
CYCLING: Ellesse Andrews, sprint 1/8 finals, 6:30pm
ATHLETICS: Camille Buscomb, 10,000m final, 10:45pm
Sunday
CYCLING: Holly Edmondston, omnium, 1pm; Ellesse Andrews (potential) sprint semifinals 1.20pm
