Shannon Cox and Jackie Kiddle have just missed the podium in the women's lightweight double sculls final at the Paris Olympics.
The New Zealanders finished fourth in 6 minutes 51.65 seconds at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium on Day 7 on Friday, just three-and-a-half seconds behind winners Great Britain.
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Cox and Kiddle fought hard, they were fourth initially before moving up to third in the middle stages. But they were unable to catch the British or Romanian crews and could not prevent Greece from passing them over the final 500 metres.
“You never want to walk away fourth,” said Kiddle, “but we put absolutely everything out there. You shoot for the moon and sometimes you fall among the stars.”
She said she was proud of the work they had done as a team over the past couple of years.
“Two years ago, I never would have believed we’d have been here.”
Earlier, Daniel Williamson and Phillip Wilson convincingly won the men's pair B final.
Although rowing conditions can change quickly at rowing venues, the New Zealanders’ time of 6:24.55 would have placed them third in the A final.
Saturday looms as another big day for New Zealand rowers, with defending women's champion Emma Twigg and Tom Mackintosh contesting single sculls finals.
There was ecstasy and disaster for New Zealand's trampoline gymnasts Maddie Davidson and Dylan Schmidt on Friday.
Davidson produced just the performance she was hoping for to finish seventh in the women’s trampoline, while Schmidt, the bronze medallist in Tokyo three years ago, came unstuck in the men’s final and finished eighth.
Davidson, 25, had performances of 54.740 and 53.910 in the qualifying round, which left her in seventh spot, with the top-eight progressing to the final.
She felt after her qualifying efforts she had performed well enough to make the finals, but still offered a sigh of relief when she saw her name in the list.
The Christchurch trampolinist looked anything but overwhelmed. She produced another fine effort in the final with 54.230, which stacked up quite well with the winning performance, Briton Bryony Page’s 56.480.
Davidson, who was eighth in the world championships in 2022, said she was “speechless” about getting to take part in the Olympic final, producing personal-bests in all three routines.
“It was amazing to be part of it, very special to be there.”
Schmidt looked sharp in qualifying and with performances of 59.510 and 60.810, he qualified fourth for the final.
In the final, he began his routine promisingly, but then he lost his bearings and went crashing off the side of the trampoline. Fortunately, he was unhurt, and could only look resigned about his fate.
“It’s super frustrating,” he said. “That’s sport. The margins are so small. I was pushing hard to get on that podium. There were some big scores out there.
“So, I pushed hard and it didn’t come off. It’s hard to explain what went wrong. Sometimes it happens so quickly and suddenly you’re on the floor."
Kiwi canoe slalom paddlers Luuka Jones and Finn Butcher started their kayak cross competitions with strong performances in the time trials.
Jones was fourth-fastest among the 37 women with a time of 72.10 seconds, just over two second behind the quickest, Frenchwoman Camille Prigent with 70.33 seconds.
Butcher was timed at 67.74 seconds, which placed him sixth of the 38 competitors. The quickest was Joseph Clarke of Britain with 66.08 seconds.
There was minimal pressure on either Finn Butcher or Luuka Jones because all the competitors were virtually assured of progressing to Saturday’s first round.
Rico Bearman has bowed out of the men's BMX Racing in the semifinals on Friday (Saturday NZT).
Bearman had finishes of eighth, fifth and fifth in his semifinal runs to finish 11th overall, missing out on the top-eight to advance to the final
US-based Bearman finished with 18 points, five points out of eighth place in the cut-throat best-of-three semifinals.
“It was a difficult track if you didn't get an inside gate as it was tough to pass. I had a great gate in the first one but wasn't quite aggressive enough," said Bearman.
Meanwhile, New Zealand judoka Sydnee Andrews was eliminated from the women’s +78kg division in her first bout.
The UK-based Andrews found experienced Bosnia and Herzegovina judoka Larisa Ceric a handful and lost by an ippon after 3 minutes 8 seconds.
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