Olympics: Day 13 wrap - Kayakers trail field in final

Kayakers Erin Taylor and Lisa Carrington react after finishing last in the K2 500m final. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Kayakers Lisa Carrington and Erin Taylor created Olympic history on Dorney Lake, but not in the way they wanted.

The K2 500 duo were the first New Zealand women to appear in a Games kayaking final but were out of medal contention, finishing 7th.

With the New Zealand flag painted on their thumbnails for patriotism and fingernails daubed in their favourite colours (Taylor passionate pink, Carrington racing red) they struggled to combat a field flying along at around 130 strokes a minute.

The German crew of Franziska Weber and Tina Dietze dominated from the outset, eventually beating double defending Olympic champions Hungary by 1.065s. Poland took bronze. New Zealand finished 4.077s behind the Germans. They beat Serbia.

The Hungarian silver medallist crew included Natasa Douchev-Janics who is back from maternity leave and will be Carrington's key rival in the K1 200m. The heats for that event start tonight with the final tomorrow night.

Teneale Hatton finished 7th in the B final of the K1 500.

New Zealander Brent Newdick finished strongly in the decathlon. The 27-year-old came 12th overall on 7988 points, with Americans Ashton Eaton and Trey Hardee runaway winners on 8869 points and 8671 points respectively.

Newdick finished second last in the 110m hurdles with a time of 15.02s, managed eighth in the discus with a throw of 46.15m and cleared 4.70m in the pole vault to finish 13th. Two of his better results came in the final two events - the javelin where he threw a season-best 59.82m, and the 1500m in which he finished in 15th with a season-best time of 4:38.20.

The New Zealand men's hockey team finished their Olympic campaign by defeating Argentina 3-1 in their playoff for ninth and 10th.

The opening 30 minutes proved the difference - the Black Sticks opened a 3-0 lead by the break. Stephen Jenness, Richard Petherick and Nick Wilson scored the goals.

Argentina scored a consolation goal in the 59th minute but never looked like overturning the result.

It was a disappointing campaign for New Zealand having come into the tournament ranked seventh.

Sarah Walker finished second in the women's seeding run at the women's BMX, meaning she has earned the preferred gate one in her semifinal tomorrow morning.

Walker is looking to erase the memory of fourth at the Beijing Olympics. The 24-year-old former world champion is fully fit after dislocating her shoulder at a meet in April.

Marc Willers has qualified in gate four for the second men's semi-final. Kurt Pickard was ousted in the quarter-finals.

Men's 470 sailors Paul Snow-Hansen and Jason Saunders had their medal race postponed due to a lack of wind off Weymouth.

The New Zealanders are fifth on 72 points with a slim chance of earning a bronze medal. While Australia and Britain will contest gold and silver, Argentina lies third on 57 points with Italy fourth on 60. New Zealand needs both those crews to stumble in the medal race to have any podium chance.

Their medal race will be sailed tonight, with the women's 470 crew of Jo Aleh and Olivia Powrie sailing for gold afterwards. Aleh and Powrie are joint leaders with Britain on 33 points with Netherlands on 52 points in third.

Light winds are forecast again tonight.

Taekwondo athletes Logan Campbell and Robin Cheong lost in first round action.

Campbell went down to unseeded Ukrainian Hryhorii Husarov 10-6. Taking two head shots in the final round was his undoing.

Cheong lost 17-6 to Egyptian Hedaya Wahba.