Aussie paddlers launch attack for second Olympic gold

They say they want to attack their event like “a dog on a bone” but Olympic champions Tom Green and Jean van der Westhuyzen were more like greyhounds out of the traps as they stormed to a heat win in the kayak sprint.

The pair won gold in Tokyo over 1000 meters but that event was removed for Paris, with the pair now competing over 500m.

The Australians showed whatever the distance they will be another big medal chance, avoiding the quarter-final race with their victory on Tuesday.

“We kind of have a little motto – we just want to be like a dog on a bone out there, we just want to go for it,” said 25-year-old van der Westhuyzen.

“We want to give ourselves a chance and whether we come first or last, at least we know we tried.”

Green, also 25, said the shorter race meant that a fast start was crucial and they had made it a focus at training.

They started to see the rewards in Hungary in May when they banked their first ever World Cup 500m victory, beating Portugal’s world champions Joao Ribeiro and Messias Baptista to the line.

“We’ve done a lot of work to work on our front end,” Green said after their first Paris outing.

“We are stocked with that, and we still had plenty to give, and we put ourselves in a position where we could kill it towards the line, so it was really good.”

Australia’s men’s K4 500m crew of two-time Olympian Riley Fitzsimmons, Jackson Collins, Pierre van der Westhuyzen and Noah Havard finished third in their heat, missing direct qualification into the semi-final.

Having picked up silver at the same world cup and placing fifth at last year’s world championships, the quartet will know they have more to give.

The women’s K4 crew of Ella Beere, Aly Bull, Alexandra Clarke and Yale Steinepreis were fourth across the line in their heat and must race again for a spot in the final.

Beere and Bull then went down the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium course a further two times, the last finishing second in their K2 500m quarter-final to secure a position in the medal race.