New Zealand’s women's flatwater paddlers could hardly have wished for more on the opening day of canoe sprinting at the Paris Olympics.
Lisa Carrington and Alicia Hoskin, looking to defend the women’s K2 500m title that Carrington and Caitlin Regal won in Tokyo, took their heat convincingly from Belgium to advance directly to the semifinals.
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The other New Zealand women’s K2 500m team of Aimee Fisher and Lucy Matehaere did not have it so easy, finishing only fourth in their heat, which pushed them to the quarterfinals. Needing a top-four finish, Fisher and Matehaere were a distant fifth, so did not progress.
Carrington and Hoskin were also on the water in the women’s K4 500m, teaming with Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan. Carrington and Hoskin were in the team that finished fourth in the final in Tokyo.
The four were untroubled in their heat, winning by half-a-second from Spain, with the first three teams moving directly into the final.
Carrington said afterwards nerves were high coming into day.
“It’s the first day and it’s an important day. I was stoked we managed to do the job.”
She praised the way Brett and Vaughan slotted into the K4.
“Sometimes I have to remind myself this is their first Games. We had a great race. We all have to be on the same page with every stroke the same. I’m incredibly proud of the team.”
In men’s racing, there was a slight complication because Max Brown and Grant Clancy were entered in the canoe double 500 (the event where competitors paddle while braced on one knee).
Brown and Clancy’s priority is the men’s K4 500, but to qualify a K4 500 team for Paris, they had to go through a circuitous route of qualifying as a canoe double team, though they are notices in the event.
Brown and Clancy competed twice in the canoe double today and trailed in a distant last both times, keen to conserve their energy for the K4 500.
In the K4 500m, they teamed up with Hamish Legarth and Kurtis Imrie, but could finish only fourth in their heat, which consigned them to a quarterfinal.
Happily, they negotiated their quarterfinal well, finishing second to Australia to earn a place in the semifinals.
Legarth and Imrie did not have a good opening race in the K2 500m, finishing fifth after easing up halfway down the track. That meant they had to race in the quarterfinals to try to qualify for the semis.
There they went through the agony of a photo finish before being confirmed as the fourth and final team to go through from their race. The New Zealanders were given the verdict by 0.01 seconds over Lithuania.
So at the end of the day, disregarding the canoe double, which was never a serious contender, New Zealand qualified their women’s K4 500m team for the final, one women’s K2 500m team for the semifinals, and men’s K2 500m and K4 500m teams for the semifinals.