Good day at the office for canoeists

Canoe sprinters Lisa Carrington and Caitlin Regal continued their sizzling form today.

After the exciting first day of finals, when Carrington won the K1 200 gold then teamed with Regal for the K2 500 gold, they turned their attention to the K1 500 today.

Carrington won a bronze medal in this event in Rio and at world championships has won 6 medals, 2 of them gold.

She made her usual lightning start and had half a length on the field in her heat by the time everyone had settled into their work. The New Zealander won in 1min 48.463, which turned out to be the third-fastest time of the day. Belgian Hermien Peters was the pace-setter with 1min 47.959.

Regal began her heat fast and led at the 250-metre mark, but she slowed noticeably in the final part of the journey and eventually just hung on to third – and direct progression into tomorrow’s semi-finals – with a time of 1min 50.297s, a cushion of 0.2s over the Slovenian who finished fourth in her heat.

The other New Zealanders in action were Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie in the men’s K2 1000. They finished fourth in their heat in 3min 17.210s, when they would have needed to place in the top two to advance directly to the semi-finals.

They returned to the water later in the day for their quarter-final, needing a top-three finish to qualify for the semi-finals tomorrow. Brown and Imrie began quickly and held the lead early from the Belarusians. In the charge to the line, the Belarusians edged ahead and won in 3min 10.126, while Brown and Imrie recorded a personal best 3min 10.220 for second.