Paris may be the city of Love, but North Coast residents will be praying for a city of Lovemore over the weekend.

Umdloti resident Hamish Lovemore (24) has had a fantastic start to his Olympic career, qualifying for the semi-finals in both paddling events in which he is competing.

He is racing the K1 (solo) canoe sprint over 1km and the K2 (duo) canoe sprint over 500m alongside South African paddling legend, Andy Birkett (33).

Both events are well underway, starting with the K2 heats on Tuesday.

Lovemore and Birkett finished fourth in Heat 4 in a time of 1.33:25, which meant they missed automatic semi-final qualification and had to paddle in the quarter-finals that afternoon.

The duo regrouped and rested up, delivering an improved time of 1.29:75 to finish second in the quarter-final and secure their semi-final berth.

“It felt magic in the boat,” said Birkett after the quarter-final.

“We’ve had some frustrating times in training, but also that heat, so it was just for us a cherry on top to hit a good quarter like that.”

“We just wanted to beat two boats, and came second, so we’re super stoked with our race and we feel great.”

Lovemore was equally thrilled with the bounce-back performance.

“This one performance being perfect is amazing, if we can do another race like this in the semis we will be over the moon,” he said.

“For the whole season, the focus has been the K2 so we’re happy to be onto the next round in the doubles.”

They will compete in the eight-team semi-final tomorrow at 11.10am and will need a top-four finish to qualify for the final at 1.30pm.

Lovemore and Birkett were both in action individually the next morning, competing in the K1 sprint 1km heats yesterday.

Lovemore came agonisingly close to automatic semi-final qualification, finishing third in his heat in a time of 3.28:19, almost exactly a second behind the second-place finisher.

It was a difficult heat for Birkett, who finished fifth in 3.53:31.

That set up a quarter-final where teammates turned competitors as the pair faced off, alongside four other racers, for two semi-final spots.

They went back and forth throughout the race, eventually finishing within two seconds of each other in second and third place behind Denmark’s Rene Poulsen.

And it was Lovemore who managed to grab second and a semi-final berth in a time of 3.36:34, while Birkett was eliminated.

Lovemore will take on an eight-man semi-final at 11.20am on Saturday from which four paddlers will qualify for the final later that afternoon at 1.10pm.

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