Hawke’s Bay’s hopes of a gold medal at the Olympic Games now rest with canoeists Aimee Fisher and Hamish Legarth after the surprise exit of athletics hope Geordie Beamish.
The 29-year-old Auckland-based Fisher, a former pupil of Karamu High School in Hastings, lines up with Lucy Matehaere, of Dunedin, in the K2 500 heats tonight and on Wednesday night goes into the K1 500 heats with big hopes of a New Zealand one-two after Fisher’s triumph over defending champion and New Zealand canoe queen Dame Lisa Carrington in a World Cup clash Hungary in May, when both went under the previous world record time for the event.
If they go with the form, Fisher will race in the K2 final on Friday night and the K1 showdown 24 hours later.
Hamish Legarth, 24 and a former pupil of Havelock North High School, is in the men’s K4 500 and K2 500 heats, and, hopefully, quarter-finals tonight and early Wednesday morning.
Other athletes from Hawke’s Bay at the Paris Olympics were Beamish, Emma Twigg and Tom Mackintosh, second and fifth respectively in the women’s and men’s single sculls finals at the rowing, Dominic Dixon and Sean Findlay, who were in the Black Sticks team beaten in all five games in the men’s hockey.
Beamish, 27, had been touted as a strong hope in the 3000 metres steeplechase after setting a New Zealand record of 8m 13.26s in Paris earlier in July, and winning the world indoor 1500m title earlier in the year.
But, having battled some illness and a hip injury in recent months, he bowed out of Olympics contention with just seventh place in his heat, and a time of 8m 25.86s.
Facing media afterwards he said: “Pretty gutted. Pretty sore. Would’ve loved to be in that final Wednesday. It’s sad not to be there, but grateful to make the start line.”
On his recovery from injury and bronchitis he said it was a “rough month”, with some pain “every single day”.
“Just wasn’t able to get in the training required to compete this level,” he said. “I haven’t done a barrier since Paris [July 7]. I haven’t even done a stride after an easy run. It’s been too much pain to do that – just been gritting my teeth through a workout and then been on the bike for two days after every session in St Moritz.
“There were a lot of times I didn’t think I would make the start line,” he said. “But happy to have made it and it was cool to be there.”
“It’s pretty incredible to see the support garnered through going to the Olympics,” he said.
“It feels that half of Hawke’s Bay, where I am from, is out in Paris. I looked up into the crowd and saw my girlfriend and siblings, and I was tearing up on the start line. It’s pretty special.”
There will be some particular Hawke’s Bay interest in the women’s pole vault on Thursday morning, with New Zealand hopes Eliza McCartney, Olivia McTaggart and Imogen Ayris having had training camps in Hastings and been regulars at the Allan and Sylvia Potts Classic each January, and at a pre-Classic meeting a few days earlier, an event that was started to offer more local opportunities.
All three were at the Classic in 2023, but overseas commitments disrupted the sequence of Hastings appearances this year.
One of McCartney’s best efforts was a 4.85m vault in Hastings in 2019, just missing in a bid for the magical five-metre barrier, which still eludes her.
“I think she will medal,” said Hastings track and field coach and pole vaulting aficionado Murray Andersen, who has hosted the trio on numerous occasions and whose granddaughter, Vaya Chaplow, who went to Havelock North High School, won two national age-group titles.
He believes Chaplow could climb to fourth in the country behind the Olympians by the end of the new season.
McTaggart’s best of 4.65m was in Hastings in 2022, when Ayris vaulted what at the time was a personal best of 4.45m.
Andersen says the conditions for training in the discipline, and other track and field events and sports, are now “perfect”, with the opening of the high-performance centre at the Mitre 10 Regional Sports Park.