Thompson and Hoskin in action tonight

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

CANOEING

Gisborne paddlers Quaid Thompson and Alicia Hoskin are in finals action at the ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, tonight.

Thompson, 21, contests the C Final in the men’s K1 1000 metres at 8.37pm (NZ time) after producing a second successive personal-best performance overnight.

His Poverty Bay Kayak Club teammate Hoskin joins North Shore paddler Caitlin Ryan in the women’s K2 500m A final at 10.56pm.

Multiple world champion Lisa Carrington, who has Gisborne family links, will contest the women’s K1 200m A Final at 9.33pm and a K1 500m semifinal at 1.06am.

Thompson made an aggressive start in his K1 1000m semifinal, seeking a top-three position that would have booked him a spot in the A Final.

At halfway, Thompson — who was drawn in Lane 1 — sat fourth. He slipped back to ninth, albeit with the consolation of posting a personal-best time for the distance of 3:31.49. That was 6.45s adrift of heat winner and reigning world champion Fernando Pimenta, of Portugal.

Carrington, 30, again showed her class in her semifinal of the K1 200m. Unbeaten in this event for seven years, Carrington produced a composed performance to clinch victory.

Repelling a strong early challenge from Portugal’s Teresa Portela, Carrington stopped the clock at 38.81 seconds — 0.49s clear of Portela.

The final takes place tonight at 9.33pm (NZ time). Carrington will bid for a seventh successive world K1 200m crown to add to her two Olympic titles.

She had earlier cruised through her heat of the K1 500m. Seeking to reclaim the title she last won four years ago, she quickly established control of Heat 1 and by the 250-metre mark held a 2.31s lead.

She eased off some way short of the finish and crossed the line in 1:48.90, 2.10s clear of second-placed Esti van Tonder of South Africa.

Kurtis Imrie (Mana) and Max Brown (Whanganui) placed second in Heat 4 of the men’s K2 1000m.

The pair, making their open world championships debut, made an electric start and at halfway held a lead of just under half a second.

At the 750m mark, the Kiwis still held a slender advantage, but in the final quarter they were overhauled by the 2017 world championship gold-medal-winning Serbian pair Milenko Zoric and Mirko Tomicevic.

Imrie and Brown had a time of 3:11.81 to finish just 0.81s adrift of the winners.