The Tokyo Lowdown: Day Zero

Olympics

In your daily guide recapping the fortunes of Kiwi sportswomen at the Tokyo Olympics, our rowers had an up and down Day Zero. 

Performance of the day

Emma Twigg took the first strokes on her row to Olympic redemption.

Fourth in London, fourth in Rio, Twigg came out of retirement to finally step onto the podium at these Olympics. Wearing a white singlet to combat the heat on a stunning day on the Sea Forest Waterway, Twigg led from start to finish over the 2000m of her single sculls heat.

It had been over a year since her last major regatta, but the former world champion never looked troubled by Dutch rower Sophie Souwer, who was over 4s behind her.

This is Twigg’s fourth Olympics, and the former world champ admitted to a few nerves. “The Olympics is a special event and I guess it’s a good thing we do experience nerves because you know it means something. It’s a kind of a nice feeling,” she said. She has the same game plan for the quarterfinals on Monday – “just keep something in the tank for later in the week.”

While Twigg’s victory wasn’t unexpected, outside of the NZ rowing team, no one was sure just how the new double sculls duo of Brooke Donoghue and Hannah Osborne would fare in their first international outing. Donoghue is a two-time world champion in this boat, and in a shock turn just before the Games, her long-time crewmate Olivia Loe was tipped out for Osborne.

After the first few hundred metres, the Kiwis were the last boat, but they then hit their straps and stormed through the middle of the field to lead at the halfway point. They stretched out to win comfortably, 2s ahead of the United States crew.

“It has been a little bit of a whirlwind,” admitted Osborne, who’s previously raced in the Kiwi quad. “To end up in the double with Brooke has been amazing. To be honest, it felt like we were racing at home. It wasn’t anything too crazy.”

It wasn’t the best start for the new quad of Eve Macfarlane, Loe, Georgina Nugent-O’Leary and Ruby Tew. They were off the pace in their heat, finishing fourth, but have another chance to qualify in the repêchage on Sunday.

Quote of the day

“It feels good to be out there. It’s been a long time coming. It was definitely a bit of a lung-buster, but you often get that with your first race,”  – Emma Twigg

Images of the day

The good news

There are more women athletes at the Tokyo Olympics than at any other time in Games history. It’s the first time the Games have achieved near gender parity, with 49 percent of the almost 11,000 competitors female. That’s up from 45 percent at the 2016 Rio Games.

For the first time, all 206 nations have at least one female and one male athlete in their teams. And all countries – plus the IOC Refugee team – were encouraged to have their flag carried by one female and one male at the opening ceremony.

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Germany women’s hockey captain Nike Lorenz will wear a rainbow stripes on her arms and socks in their opening game against Britain on Sunday, in the latest sign of athlete activism. The IOC has allowed the 24-year-old to support the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender movement and sexual diversity with her colorful bands.

According to Athlete Ally, there’s an historic number of out LGBTQ+ athletes at these Olympics (“142 and counting”).

The Football Ferns taking a knee before their first game was one of the first demonstrations under the new relaxation of Rule 50, that states “no kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted in any Olympic sites, venues or other areas.”

The not-so-good-news

The typhoon brewing to the west of Japan has already disrupted the Olympic schedule. With bad weather expected to hit on Monday, changes have already been made to the rowing events to avoid gusty, choppy conditions – the women’s eight heat has been moved from Sunday to Saturday.  It’s not good news for the Kiwi sailors, who start their competition at Enoshima on Tuesday.  But it’s possibly good news for surfer Ella Williams: the tropical cyclone could bring big waves to Tsurigasaki Beach, south-east of Tokyo.

And the 30 degrees Celsius-plus heat and humidity in Tokyo today took its toll on Russian archer Svetlana Gomboeva who collapsed during her qualifying round. Gomboeva was checking her archery scores when she collapsed; staff and teammates rushed to her aid, putting ice on her head to cool her down.

What the?!

The man who planned the Olympic opening ceremony can’t take a bow tonight – he was fired the day before because of an awful Holocaust joke he made in a comedy show in 1998. The Games organising committee booted out the director of the show, former comedian Kentaro Kobayashi, after a video emerged of his skit, where he cut up paper people and joked about playing a game of “let’s massacre Jewish people”.

And Ghana’s 100m sprinter Aissata Deen Conte and her four Olympic team-mates will now get to compete in Tokyo after her country made a speedy U-turn on their decision to withdraw from the Games to ‘protect the health of their athletes’ from the pandemic spike in Tokyo (almost 2000 Covid cases reported yesterday). But after a slap on the wrist from the IOC, Ghana quickly changed their minds.

Rikki’s pick

For the best watch this weekend, seasoned Sky Sports commentator Rikki Swannell is picking the Black Sticks’ first hockey match of these Olympics, against Argentina on Sunday (3.15pm).

“While the European hockey nations have been able to play each other during the pandemic, the Black Sticks have only had a handful of matches against Australia in the past 18 months. An opening game against Argentina at the Olympics is a heck of a way to get back into international competition.

“Argentina is ranked second in the world but despite winning medals at four consecutive Olympics from 2000 to 2012, Las Leonas have never won gold.

“The Black Sticks have some seasoned pros who’ve known their own Olympic heartbreak and a win in game one against a powerhouse side would set the tone for their campaign.”

Who’s up this weekend

Saturday 24 July (NZT):

ROWING: Grace Prendergast and Kerri Gowler, women’s pair heat, 1.10pm. Women’s eight, heat, 3.20pm

FOOTBALL: Football Ferns v United States, 11.30pm

Sunday 25 July

SHOOTING: Chloe Tipple, skeet qualifying, noon.

SURFING: Ella Williams, 1st and 2nd rounds,1.20pm

ROWING: Quad repêchage, 1.50pm; pair repêchage if needed.

HOCKEY: Black Sticks v Argentina, 3.15pm.

CANOE SLALOM: Luuka Jones, K1 heat, 4.45pm

SWIMMING: Ali Galyer, 100m backstroke heat; Erika Fairweather, 400m freestyle heat, 10pm.

* You can track down the New Zealand performances you want to watch through the Sky Sport schedule.