Medal deluge! The Paris Dossier – Day 13

It began on the waters of Marseille with a bronze to multihull sailors Erica Dawson and Micah Wilkinson – a medal won the second they crossed the startline.
Then history was made at Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium when the Kiwi kayaking quartet won gold in the K-4 500 for the first time, and Dame Lisa Carrington claimed her sixth Olympic title.
And it ended at Vélodrome de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines with Ellesse Andrews crowned our latest Olympic champion, completely dominating in the women’s keirin – and becoming only the second Kiwi to win cycling gold in our Olympic history.

Jon Andrews didn’t even watch the finish of the keirin final, as his daughter Ellesse won Olympic gold.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited in my whole life; I didn’t even watch the finish,” Jon, her coach and a 1992 Olympic cyclist, told Sky Sport, standing beside his daughter. “I saw you come through the bend and I was like there’s no way you’re being beaten from there. And I just turned and ran for the track. It was awesome.”
Andrews controlled the final triumphantly, pushing to the lead with three laps to go and holding off first Briton Emma Finucane who sat on her hip ominously in the final circuit, and then the Dutchwoman Hetty van de Wouw, to win by a wheel.
The 24 year-old Andrews, the reigning world champion, beamed as she broke the line, realising she’d grabbed that gold, 0.062 ahead of van de Wouw – to upgrade her silver medal in the same event at Tokyo three years ago.
“I tend to take a while to let things soak in so right now it’s just surreal,” she said. “I’m very sore, I’m very hot and I’m very puffed.
“On a track like this, it’s great to be in No.1 coming into the bell. I remember seeing Finucane right on my hip coming into the bell and I knew I just needed to accelerate and keep going.”
Andrews was also part of the silver medal winning NZ team sprint at Paris and her medal bag had bulged already from the three golds in sprint events and keirin that she won at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games two years ago. Her victory came 20 years after Sarah Ulmer won gold in the individual pursuit in Athens.
Fellow Kiwi Rebecca Petch finished 12th in her Olympic debut in the event.
Dame Lisa Carrington knew the moment the Kiwi quartet nosed across the finishline that she had her sixth Olympic gold medal. It mightn’t have been so obvious to the three women sitting behind her that they’d just won their first gold – after battling with Germany for the entire 500m.
But when New Zealand’s most decorated Olympian leaned forward and enthusiastically patted the bow of their boat, the result was clear to everyone.
Carrington, Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan – the 2023 world champions – led off the startline, but the Germans came bow-to-bow with the Kiwis at the halfway mark. At the finish though, New Zealand had it by 0.42s.
“It’s surreal,” Carrington told Sky Sport after claiming her seventh Olympic medal. “You just don’t know when you line up, you never know what the result’s going to be. So it’s amazing when you can come through as we have with a gold medal.
“The amount of work that we’ve put in collectively. The people behind the team as well. This is an incredibly special moment especially to do it on our biggest stage.”
It was the first Olympic medal for Hoskin (fourth in the K4 in Tokyo), and debutants Brett and Vaughan – all with their hair in their signature braids. “Our plan today was to stay in our boat. We’ve got to trust our own strategy, trust the girls here, trust all the stuff we’d prepared for,” Hoskin said. “It takes a lot of courage to do that, so really happy.”
Vaughan, 20, was over the moon. “These girls are everything. I’m so, so grateful for all they do. Being part of this team is absolutely the best.”
Carrington and Hoskin return to the water tonight intent on another gold, in the K-2 500m.
Three years after the heartbreak of fracturing her leg on the eve of the Tokyo Olympics, Auckland sailor Erica Dawson felt the elation of winning bronze in the mixed multihull with partner Micah Wilkinson.
The Kiwis had sealed the bronze medal before they entered the racecourse – as their closest rivals Great Britain (who sat ahead of them on the points table only on countback) crossed the startline early and were disqualified for not restarting.
As soon as Dawson and Wilkinson saw the upset British crew being told to leave the racecourse, the Kiwis decided to change strategy and aim for silver – which meant finishing four places ahead of Argentina in the double points race. But they ended the light winds race in eighth, one place behind the Argentinians. They couldn’t be beaten for bronze.
“I’m just so happy it turned out like this. This week we just wanted to give ourselves a shot, and we did that,” Dawson told LockerRoom. “Tokyo wasn’t good for us – it was not the prep we wanted with a broken leg. But this time we wanted to enjoy the Olympic experience and that released a bit of the pressure.”
The Kiwi duo had their best regatta together in Paris, ranked No.6 going into these Games. And Dawson took advice from her 49erFX room-mates, Jo Aleh and Molly Meech, who had both won medals at previous Olympics.
“I was so lucky to be staying with Jo and Molly for this whole trip, they’ve been our greatest supporters,” Dawson said. “They have so much experience and they know things can get funky in a medal race and you’ve just got to keep it simple.”
Bronze was the perfect birthday gift for their coach, Anton Paz, who’s been with them through the past three years.
“I told myself that if I ran under nine minutes, knowing that nine is my lucky number and that we’ve been together for nine years, then I would propose.”
– French 3000m steeplechase runner Alice Finot promised to propose to her boyfriend, Spanish triathlete Bruno Martinez Bargiela if she ran under 9m in the Olympic final. Finot finished fourth, narrowly missing the podium by just 3s. However, she broke the European steeplechase record with a time of 8m 58.67s.
Golfer Lydia Ko surged up the leaderboard in a masterclass second round 5-under to be poised in third place, just two shots behind the Swiss leader, Morgane Metraux, at the halfway point.
The 27-year-old who won silver and bronze at the last two Olympics and is starting to sniff a chance at gold in Paris, hit six birdies and one bogey in her second round.
“I played really well yesterday even though my score wasn’t great. The pins were difficult. So I felt I was laying well, and today I was solid. I didn’t put myself in many awkward positions,” Ko told Sky Sport.
“It’s important on this course to be consistent, especially off the tee. I had a sloppy finish, but otherwise it was a nice round to get under my belt.”
In her “easy, breezy” approach, Maddi Wesche made light work of qualifying for the shot put final, throwing 10cm over the 19.15m automatic entry mark on her second attempt.
Wesche, who was sixth in Tokyo three years ago, goes into Saturday morning’s final ranked second – after only three throwers passed the 19m mark. Colourful world No.1 Chase Jackson of the US failed to make the 12 finalists.
Famous for her shades, the west Aucklander was pleased with her efforts after the shot was leaving her hand “a little weird” in the warm-up. “But after the first throw [of 18.59m] I was, ‘Yeah I got this. I can ease into this’,” she told Sky Sport.
And while Maia Ramsden didn’t make the final of the 1500m – just pipped on the finishline for a top six place – she set a national record of 4m 02.2s. Not a bad effort for a 22-year-old in her first Olympics.
Mobina Nematzadeh (19) became just the second woman from Iran to win an Olympic medal securing bronze in the 49kg category of taekwondo.
Iran’s first female medallist, Kimia Alizadeh, won a bronze in taekwondo at the 2016 Rio Olympics. After her stunning success, Alizadeh defected from Iran accusing Iranian officials of sexism and refusing to wear the mandatory hijab headscarf.
After a spell in Germany, Alizadeh represented the Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 and beat former Iranian teammate, roommate, and best friend Nahid Kiani.
Alizadeh eventually earned Bulgarian citizenship and in the Round of 16 of the 57kg category in Paris this time, she faced world champion Kiani in a tense and frosty rematch. With six seconds remaining Alizadeh enjoyed a three-point lead until Kiani levelled with a kick to the head and took victory by superiority.
The rivals didn’t even glance at each other as they exited the octagonal combat zone, then declined to speak to reporters. Iran has 41 athletes competing in 14 sports in Paris. Mohammadhadi Saravi won a gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. On the Refugee Olympic Team, 14 of the 37 athletes are Iranian.
“We’re back on the water at Vaires-sur-Marne for the third of five days in Dame Lisa Carrington’s hectic canoe sprint programme, and she and Alicia Hoskin will be looking to win their second medal at these Olympics.
“Carrington and Hoskin are among the favourites to collect gold in the K-2 500 – the event where Carrington and Caitlin Regal set the Olympic and world record on their way to winning the final in Tokyo three years ago. Carrington has been repeatedly spoken about pacing herself at these Games, also wanting to defend her K-1 500 title on Saturday night (NZT).
“And can Maddi Wesche make the shot put podium at her second Olympics, following in the legendary footsteps of four-time Olympic medallist Dame Valerie Adams?”
Teenager Julian David gave world record holder Sam Watson a run for his money up the speed climbing wall in the men’s quarterfinals, touching the pad second in clocking 5.65s, and ended up a creditable eighth overall.
Flagbearer Aaron Gate fought back to finish fifth in track cycling’s omnium, and now has a day to rest his legs before his main event – the madison with Campbell Stewart – on Sunday morning.
Runner James Preston was sixth in the 800m repechage and didn’t progress. The men’s K-4 500 couldn’t replicate the success of the women, and finished eighth in their final.

Golf – Lydia Ko, round 3, 7pm
Canoe/Kayak – Dame Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin, K-2 500m semifinal, 8.50 pm; final, 11.10pm
Cycling – Shaane Fulton, Ellesse Andrews, sprint qualifying 12am; 1/32 finals, 12.48am, 1/16 finals 5.10am; Bryony Botha, Emily Shearman, madison 4.09am.
Swimming – Eva Morris, Nina Brown, artistic swimming duet, technical routine, 5.30am
Athletics – Maddi Wesche, shot put final, 5.40am
To see the full schedule of when New Zealand athletes are competing on Sky Sport, go to https://www.sky.co.nz/discover/sky-sport/olympics#schedule