Lydia Ko has shot an even-par 72 in the first round of the women's golf tournament at the Paris Olympics.
Ko, an Olympic silver and bronze medallist, has a share of 13th after the opening day at Le Golf National, west of Paris, on Wednesday (Thursday NZ Time), seven strokes behind the leader, French favourite Celine Boutier.
LATEST HEADLINES:
The 27-year-old made a bad start, opening with a bogey, but she picked up two birdies on the outward nine.
Coming home, a birdie was negated by a bogey, but a double-bogey on the 15th, when her second shot landed in the water, damaged her round. Ko fought back with a birdie on the 18th to keep herself in the hunt.
Ko felt she played solid golf.
“I had the one hiccup, but the course is difficult and can get away on you if you aren’t careful. I stayed patient and finished with a birdie to cap off the round, so I was happy.”
In Marseille, wind conditions were again a dominant factor, with Kiwis Micah Wilkinson and Erica Dawson having to wait until Thursday for their mixed multihull (nacra) medal race.
The pair are currently tied for third going into the double-points race to decide the medals, with realistic chances of moving up to silver.
One New Zealanders did get to sail, with Tom Saunders finishing fifth in the delayed men's dinghy medal race to finish seventh overall. He finished 10 points off the podium, with his disqualification in race seven on Monday costing him big.
Meanwhile, kitesurfers Justina Kitchen and Lukas Walton-Keim did not see any action on Wednesday, with none of the 10 scheduled women's races and nine men's races getting to the start line.
Kiwi diver Lizzie Roussel struggled to make an impression in the women’s 3m springboard competition.
The 26-year-old New Zealander finished 26th in a field of 28 in the preliminary section, with only the top-18 divers advancing to the semifinals.
Roussel, who also competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics, totalled 233.70. The leader after the preliminary section was China’s Yiwen Chen with 356.40.
Roussel’s best dives were a back two-and-a-half somersault that earned her 55.50 and a reverse two-and-a-half somersault that was awarded a score of 54.00.