Carolina García Otero was crying. Sara Ouzande was comforting her. “I couldn’t say what happened,” said Sara. “I don’t know, it seemed like we were going ahead, but when your body is so far at its limit…” said Carolina. Suddenly, without warning, their boat had capsized just a few metres from the finish line of a race in which they were third, the B final, on the windiest day of the Olympic track canoeing championship. The meteorologists conspired against the Spanish fleet in the Vaires-sur-Marne canal, east of Paris, on Friday afternoon. They also conspired against the K-2 of Cooper and Del Río, which finished fourth; and of course against the canoe of Antía Jacome and María Corbera, who needed a starboard wind and had enough of port gusts before finishing sixth.
Oblivious to the misfortune of others, Lisa Carrington got out of her kayak and walked in front of the press, devouring a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich. Water makes you hungry, and if it’s churning with a gusty tailwind, even more so. The paddler had just won the seventh Olympic gold of her life by a landslide, several metres ahead of the Hungarians and Germans. This made her the most decorated New Zealand athlete in history. She could afford to ignore even the gold, much less give explanations about the strange events that occurred in the B final, where the Spanish boat had capsized. “The wind is a challenge,” said Alicia Hoskin, her teammate on the New Zealand team, obediently and dying of laughter. “But we have trained very well to keep our balance!”
A jet ski rescued Carolina García and Sara Ouzande from the water of the Marne. They were clinging to the boat, like two castaways, exhausted. A wave caught Sara by surprise, as she was sticking her spoon in, and the strength of her arm made the kayak pivot to the right. Something very rare in sprint competitions, which reflected the atmospheric difficulties, an insurmountable barrier when the body and mind have only had one day of rest after the sixth place in the K-4 final held on Thursday, as is the case for the Spanish women. They were hoping to get on the podium, after winning bronze at the 2023 World Championships, and the emotional blow had upset them. “So much tailwind with so many waves makes us hit the water too much,” observed Carlos Arévalo, a veteran of a thousand storms.
The most punished by the wind were Antía Jácome and María Corbera. Silver medallists at last year’s World Championships and favourites for the Olympic podium, the Madrid native and the Spaniard had an advantage and a handicap at the same time. They both paddle on the left, on the starboard side. This moves the canoe to the left and multiplies its propulsion with wind from this direction, just as it accentuates the turn to the left if it blows from the port side. When the vast majority of the best boats have balanced canoeists, the Spanish made a bet. It came up tails. “When we paddle on the left, it is difficult to keep the boat straight,” explained María Corbera. “When the wind comes from the stern, it takes the boat where it wants, and if it comes from the right, it increases that inertia. So we constantly have to make a movement of repaleolonger. With strong winds you have to try to stick forward and not over the peak of the wave, in order to hook in well. In the last 200 meters this took its toll on us.”
Armed with optimism, Marcus Cooper, a member of the K-4 team that won bronze on Thursday, made a positive assessment of his fourth place in K-2 after the final he contested with Madrid-born Adrián del Río. “We were very close to any medal, and the closer we are, the more painful it is to lose it, but it is not really pain that we feel,” said the Mallorcan. “We competed very well. We did the race we planned and we are happy.”
“The strategy was to start strong and have a very well-matched average pace, which was what we were lacking a bit, because we are a new couple,” he said. “Then in the last few metres we knew that, as it was a tough race with wind, it could be difficult for us. If we had had a few more metres, we would have caught up with Australia. Those Hungarians who were first hold the world record; they are a consolidated couple since 2017. We have fought with real beasts. We have been training for a few months. Coming fourth has been a great success.”
This Saturday, the races on the Games’ speed course will conclude. It will be the turn of the individual events. Hopefully the wind will not shake the Spaniards.
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