Plett athlete happy to be in Olympic final

Timothy Twidle GARDEN ROUTE CORRESPONDENT

PLETTENBERG Bay‘s Michèle Eray has made it to the finals of the K4 kayak canoe sprint at the Beijing Olympics and will, along with her three team-mates, compete in the 500m race today.

The K4 team, comprising Eray, Carol Joyce, Nikki Mocke and Jen Hodson, came third in the heats on Monday, directly qualifying them for the final without having to compete in the semi-finals on Tuesday.

Before leaving for the Olympics, Eray said she had taken part in qualifying races for more than two years.

She grew up in Plettenberg Bay and took to water sports from an early age.

After university, Eray started intensive training under the guidance of Robbie Hegedus, who had represented Hungary as a kayak canoeist.

Eray, who paddles at the front of the team as stroke, yesterday said: “Our race was a cracker. We had a great start and were with the Chinese the whole way, which is a first for us.

“I tried to set a nice high stroke rate and then in the second phase of the race, tried to keep it up. It worked and although the tunnel started closing in on me near the last 100m of the race, we held it together and left the Italians in fourth place. This is the first time we have beaten them and we saved it for when it mattered.”

Eray‘s parents, Colleen and Francois, who have lived in Plettenberg Bay for 25 years, travelled to China to watch Eray compete . “It‘s so great to have family here,” she said.

The final of the four women 500m kayak canoe sprint takes place at 10.20am (SA time) and can be viewed on Super Sport channel 6 on DStv.