Australia’s Noemie Fox advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s kayak cross as her sister Jessica Fox’s hopes of a golden hat-trick at the Paris 2024 Olympics are over.
All eyes were on heat three on Sunday as the Fox sisters faced each other in a tough race that included experienced paddlers Martina Wegman of The Netherlands and Maialen Chourraut of Spain.
Jessica, bidding for a third gold in Paris after her success in canoe and kayak, is a double world champion in kayak cross that is making its Olympic debut.
But she was left chasing after falling behind following the ramp start as Noemie forged ahead.
While Noemie extended her lead, Jessica overtook Wegman and looked to get the better of Chourraut.
But a mistake at gate eight saw her chances end as Chourraut and Noemie went through.
“I didn’t pull out my best race and it was really tough off the start as I got really tangled with the other two girls,” said Jessica.
“Noemie had a really good start, so I was trying to chase from that moment.
“I climbed up one spot and I almost pulled off the overtake in the last upstream gate but that’s kayak cross and sometimes nothing goes to plan.
“I’m absolutely gutted but at the same time when you see your little sister win the heat the emotion went straight away and I gave her a massive hug as I was really proud of her.”
Jessica said it had been a “dream Games” and would now be screaming for Noemie as she goes in search of glory.
“It was really hard to be lined up with Jess,” said Noemie.
“We always knew it was going to be as we didn’t want to knock either one of us out. The goal was to get the two Australians through as far as possible and it would have been great to meet later on and do a final together.”
Home favourite Camille Prigent continued her impressive form as she stormed to top spot in heat one, qualifying along with Algeria’s Carole Diana Bouzidi.
British pair Mallory Franklin and Kimberley Woods also led from start to finish as they cruised into the quarter-finals.
Brazil’s Ana Satila, who came through the repechage on Saturday, progressed after finishing second behind France’s Angele Hug.
New Zealand’s Luuka Jones and Germany’s Ricarda Funk qualified from heat four, while Evy Leibfarth of the United States edged Switzerland’s Alena Marx in a thrilling race as they both went through.
The other paddlers advancing to the quarter-finals are Germany’s Elena Lilik, Italy’s Stefanie Horn, Andorra’s Monica Doria Vilarrubla and Ukraine’s Viktoriia Us.
There was more French delight in the men’s kayak cross heats as Boris Neveu and Titouan Castryck won their respective races.
"Every day is really a joy to start at this stadium, so I am just enjoying it so much, and I hope it will continue like that,” said Castryck.
”We'll look at the other competitors, especially for the starting place on the run, and we'll adapt a lot the race plan because of that.”
Great Britain’s reigning world champion Joseph Clarke swept into the quarter-finals along with Slovakia’s Jakub Grigar in the opening heat.
"Back here tomorrow, hopefully three runs tomorrow and rinse repeat for three of them,” said Clarke.
“I'd be foolish to think it will be that easy, but three runs tomorrow is the aim of the game and challenge for those medals in that final round."
Czechia’s Jiri Prskavec and Spain’s Manuel Ochoa made it through in heat two, with Italy’s newly-crowned Olympic kayak champion Giovanni de Gennaro and Poland’s Mateusz Polaczyk progressing from heat four.
Brazil’s Pedro Goncalves was faulted on gate two as New Zealand’s Finn Butcher and Slovenia’s Benjamin Savsek sealed the two quarter-final spots from heat five.
Australian duo Timothy Anderson and Tristan Carter continued their kayak cross campaigns while Germany’s Noah Hegge, Poland’s Grzegorz Hedwig, Czechia’s Lukas Rohan and Switzerland’s Martin Dougoud also advanced.
