Lisa Carrington (left) and Caitlin Ryan in action at the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Portugal. Photo/Balint Vekassy
Lisa Carrington (left) and Caitlin Ryan in action at the Canoe Sprint World Championships in Portugal. Photo/Balint Vekassy
On a jam-packed schedule on day two of the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal all five New Zealand boats successfully advanced to the next stage.
Leading the way was seven-time world champion and double Olympic gold medallist Lisa Carrington, who produced a controlled performance to win heattwo of the women's K1 500m in 1m 53.239s and progress into the semi-final.
The 29-year-old Kiwi qualified sixth fastest overall, before returning to the water just more than an hour later to kick-start the defence of her world title with Caitlin Ryan in the women's K2 500m.
The Kiwi duo oozed class to comfortably win their heat in 1m 39.262s, 1.085s clear of Olympic champions Hungary - comprising five-time Olympic champion Danuta Kozak and Anna Karasz - to top the qualifiers leading into Sunday's final at 12.04am.
"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 semi-final," Carrington said.
"We've got a busy weekend, so where we can we want to cut the [number of] races 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 Kiwi K4 500m World Championship bronze medal-winning crew last year, were locked in a titanic scrap with the German crew of Franziska Weber and Tina Dietze. Drawn in lane nine the New Zealanders were undaunted and clocked a time of 38.244s to finish just 0.010s behind the Germans.
With just over a tenth of a second separating the top four crews in qualification, the final, which takes place at 11.44pm on Saturday night, is shaping up to be one of most compelling races of the regatta.
On her open worlds debut, New Zealander Rebecca Cole produced a rock solid effort to finish third in her heat of the women's K1 1000m, clocking a time of 4m 16.869s. Cole finished eighth quickest overall to advance into the semi-finals.
The other Kiwi in action on day two, Quaid Thompson, placed seventh in his heat of the K1 1000m in a time of 3m 38.455s. Aged just 20, the Gisborne-based paddler, making his first appearance at an open World Championships, did enough to progress to the semi-finals on Saturday at 8.51pm on next best time.
