Olympics Canoe and Kayak Sprint results: August 17
By Brad Weiss
The 2016 Rio Olympics Canoe and Kayak sprint events continued on Wednesday, as four competitions had their preliminary and semifinal rounds.
The 2016 Rio Olympics canoe and kayak sprint competition continued on Wednesday, as four events began their preliminary and semifinal rounds. The four events were the men’s kayak double 1000m, men’s canoe single 200m, men’s kayak double 200m, and the women’s kayak single 500m. The competition was intense, and the finals are now set for Thursday.
In the men’s kayak double 1000m, Serbia’s Marco Tomicevic and Milenko Zoric posted the fastest time in the preliminary round, followed by Germany’s Marcus Gross and Max Rendschmidt. Both groups punched their tickets to the final with their performances in the preliminaries. Six other countries qualified during the semifinal runs, setting the stage for eight countries to battle it out on Thursday.
Keep an eye on the Portugal team of Emanuel Silva and Joao Ribeiro. Silva won a silver in this event during the 2012 London Olympics, as he and Fernando Pimenta posted a time of 3:09.69. The two missed out on a gold medal by 0.05 seconds.
The second event of the day was the men’s canoe single 200m, and a familiar name earned the best time in the semifinals. Brazil’s Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos clocked a time of 39.65, qualifying for a spot in the finals. Dos Santos won a silver medal on Tuesday, finishing second in the men’s canoe single 1000m race.
The biggest surprise of this event was the performance of Yuriy Cheban, who missed out on qualifying for the finals with a bad run in the semis. Cheban is the reigning gold medal winner in this event, and was expected to be back on the podium in 2016.
The men’s kayak double 200m followed the canoe single 200m, and those expected to perform well shined. Great Britain’s duo of Liam Heath and Jon Schofield, who took bronze in the 2012 London Games, had the fastest time in the semifinal runs. In the preliminary round, two countries won their heats, earning an automatic bid to the finals.
In Heat 1, Spain’s Saul Craviotto Rivero and Cristian Toro Carballo posted the fastest time of the day in the event, as their blistering mark of 31.16s led everyone in the preliminary round. Over in Heat 2, Lithuania’s Edvinas Ramanauskas and Aurimas Lankas were the fastest duo, clocking a time of 31.75s, though their time would have only been good for fifth in Heat 1.
The final preliminary and semifinal rounds of the day were in the women’s kayak single 500m, as New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington looked to earn a chance at her second kayak single gold of this Olympics. She did just that, posting a semifinal time of 1:56.15, which was good enough for fifth overall. Hugary’s Danuta Kozak, who won the gold in this event during the 2012 Olympics, was amazing, racing out to the fastest time, 1:54.24, in the semis.
must read: 15 Greatest Upsets in Summer Olympic History
Azerbaijani’s Inna Osypenko-Radomska, who won a silver medal for Ukraine in the women’s kayak single 500m at the 2012 Games, also impressed on Wednesday. Osypenko-Radomska had the best time during the preliminary round, and of the day, clocking in at 1:51.75.
The finals in all four of these events will take place on Thursday morning, and they will mark the end of the first eight of 12 canoe and kayak sprint competitions of this Olympics.