Kiwi paddlers advance at worlds
New Zealand’s top women paddlers are poised for medal success at the canoe sprint world championships in Portugal.
All five New Zealand kayaks advanced to the latter stages of the event at Montemor O Velho, with dual Olympic gold medallist Lisa Carrington prominent.
The seven-time world champion produced a controlled performance to win heat two of the women’s K1 500m in 1min 53.239sec and progress to the semifinals.
The 29-year-old qualified sixth fastest overall, pacing herself in a demanding schedule as she returned to the water just over an hour later with Caitlin Ryan to start the defence of their world title in the women’s K2 500m.
The Kiwi duo won their heat in 1:39.262, 1.085sec clear of Olympic champions Hungary – comprising five-time Olympic champion Danuta Kozak and Anna Karasz – to top the qualifiers leading into this morning’s (NZT) final.
‘‘It is so exciting to race her [Kozak] and Anna, we just really wanted to make top three, so we didn’t have to go through a semifinal,’’ Carrington said. ‘‘We’ve got a busy weekend, so where we can we want to cut the [number of] races [we have to compete in] down. We are pretty happy.’’
In the women’s K2 200m, the relatively new Kiwi combination of Kayla Imrie and Aimee Fisher impressed by qualifying second fastest into the A final. The duo, who both featured as part of the K4 500m world championships bronze medal-winning crew last year, finished just 0.010sec behind the German crew of Franziska Weber and Tina Dietze in a time of 38.244sec.
On her world championships debut, Rebecca Cole was third in her heat of the women’s K1 1000m in a time of 4:16.869 to be eighth-quickest overall to advance to the semifinals.
Quaid Thompson was seventh in his heat of the K1 1000m in 3:38.455. The 20-year-old Gisborne-based paddler, making his first appearance at an open world championships, did enough to progress to the semifinals on next best time.