Smith, Baxter narrowly miss out on rowing A final

THERE was huge disappointment for Team South Africa in Paris on Wednesday when rowers John Smith and Chris Baxter narrowly missed out on a place in the A final in the men’s pairs, thus removing them from medal contention.

The South Africans were in the tougher semi-final and would always be up against it, given that they were racing most of the event’s medal favourites, including the reigning Olympic champions from Croatia and the current world champions from Switzerland.

Those two boats got out first and held on to the first and second places for the entire race.

Smith and Baxter fought bravely, but Spain’s Javier Canalejo Pazos and Javier Garcia Ordonez came through from fifth in the first quarter to take the third qualifying place.

For the South Africans, it was a case of lightning striking twice because in May they looked like they were headed for the podium in the World Cup II regatta in Lucerne, Switzerland, only for Pazos and Ordonez to crash the party at the last minute.

Smith and Baxter finished fourth in Wednesday’s semi-final in a time of six minutes 40.55 seconds and will now have to pick themselves up for the B final on Friday at 11.30am.

Rowing has won three Olympic medals for South Africa, two of them in the men’s pair. The first was a bronze at Athens 2004.

In 2016, the SA pair of Lawrence Brittain and Shaun Keeling won silver at the Rio Games

Smith, a member of the victorious lightweight four at London 2012, was seeking to become the first South African to win a second Olympic medal after a 12-year gap.

In the women’s singles scull semi-finals C/D on Wednesday, South African Paige Badenhorst emerged victorious in her race in 7:55.91 and will now compete for 13th position in the C final on Saturday (10.18am).