Jess Fox’s golden run at Paris has come to end, after she couldn’t recover from a tangle at the start of her kayak cross heat from which her sister Noémie deftly emerged to claim victory.
The result is a sudden end to the 30-year-old’s hopes of a third gold medal in France, the country of her birth, at the Games where she is Australia’s flag bearer.
“That’s kayak cross, and you can have a plan, but nothing goes to plan. I’m gutted, but at the same time, when you see your little sister win the heat, I was really proud of her,” Jess said.
“Its really tough, but there’s also some relief in finishing, there’s partly disappointment to not progress today, and to not try and have a crack at that third medal progress, but there’s pride, relief and exhaustion from the last week of competing.”
The younger Fox took an early lead in the four-woman race and stayed in front throughout the combative dash down the course.
“It was sad to see her not get up to second behind me”, Noémie told Channel Nine. “I would have loved to [progress to] the quarter-finals together, but that’s the sport. It’s so brutal, and it’s really every man for themselves, essentially. So yeah, I cheered her on in the gold medal runs, and hopefully she cheers me on until the end too.”
The elder Fox got caught up in a duel with Martina Wegman in the early stages , and had to work hard to make up ground on Spain’s Maialen Chourraut in second place for much of the 200m race.
“I just didn’t pull out my best race,” she said. “It was tough off the start. I got really tangled, and I was trying to chase.”
She finally caught the Spaniard on the final upstream gate, but couldn’t get past her and ultimately finished fourth, ending her hopes of a third gold medal in Paris.
Noémie started in the right lane alongside Jess, and said it can be difficult for those on the inside who get caught in the early scramble.
“The start is probably the most important thing to try get out in front and to really punch through,” she said. “I’d say the two far right lanes are definitely the fastest lanes, and it kind of depends who’s next to you as well. But I like that there’s a bit of less contact from the start, so I’m not sandwiched from the get go.”
She expressed her regret she couldn’t continue with her sibling. “We were hoping to meet in the finals, but yeah, it was an incredible race, a really tough lineup again in the heats, and I know the quarter-finals will just be as stacked.”
Noémie will feature in the quarter-finals, and potentially the semi-finals and final, on Monday. Australians Tristan Carter and Tim Anderson are also through to the quarter-finals in the men’s event.
