Rio Olympics 2016: While you were sleeping - day eleven

Nikki Hamblin's Olympic spirit paid dividends as she qualified for the event's final despite tripping and finishing 14th in her heat. Photo: Marty Melville / www.Photosport.nz

It's been a morning of double delight for New Zealand at the Rio Olympics.

Paddling champion Lisa Carrington successfully achieved the first of her two major goals for the Games, claiming back-to-back gold medals in the women's K1 200m canoe sprint event.

Then a few hours later, master sailors Peter Burling and Blair Tuke were confirmed as gold medallists, even before Thursday's medal race in the 49er class. It improved on their silver medal from London four years ago.

Throw in a bronze for Laser sailor Sam Meech and it made for a morning to savour.

New Zealand's medal tally now stands at four gold, six silver and one bronze medal.

Burling and Tuke have capped off a dominant four years in the 49er class. They are an unassailable 34 points clear aftere the final day of fleet racing.

The four-time world champions have been ruthlessly consistent in this regatta, with their worst finish of the 12 races being seventh, to ensure their rivals never really got a look-in.

German crew of Erik Heil and Thomas Ploessel are in silver medal position heading in to the final race, with Australians Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen, the defending Olympic champions back in third.

However all Burling and Tuke have to do is show up on the course to claim the gold.

Carrington has been unbeaten in the K1 200m sprint since winning the world title in Hungary in 2011. She had to work hard in the first half of the race but once she had her nose in front she powered to the line, clocking 39.864 seconds, ahead of Poland's Marta Walczykiewicz and Azerbaijan's Inna Osipenko-Rodomska.

Meech sat third going into the double points medal race and needed a top five finish to guarantee a medal. He finished fourth to become the first New Zealander to win a medal in the biggest fleet of the Games, with 46 sailors competing.

There was a tough break for Nacra 17 pair Gemma Jones and Jason Saunders. They easily won the medal race but it wasn't quite enough to get them on the podium. They finished fourth after Argentina overcame a penalty to do just enough to win gold, and bump New Zealand down.

Josh Junior finished seventh overall in the Finn class, after a fourth-place finish in his medal race. Great Britain's Giles Scott already had the gold medal locked down heading into the race.

Pole vaulter Eliza McCartney qualified for the final at her first Olympics, with a leap of 4.60 metres, advancing in fifth place. Making the final was her main target for Rio, as she had been targeting the Tokyo Games in 2020 until early this year, when things began moving quicker than anticipated.

She leaps about 11.30am on Saturday, about 70 minutes before Nikki Hamblin lines up for the 5000m final after a dramatic race in which she fell four laps from the end, helped an American rival Abbey D'Agostino to her feet, and finished 14th in her heat.

Both runners were granted places in the final after protests from the New Zealand and American teams. The story led newspapers and websites around the world earlier today.

"I went down, and was like, 'What's happening? Why am I on the ground?'' Hamblin said.

"Then suddenly this hand on my shoulder, like 'Get up, get up, we have to finish this,' and I said, 'Yup, yup, you're right. This is the Olympic Games. We have to finish this."

Also on the track, Beijing Olympic silver medalist Nick Willis stormed home over the final 50m of his heat in the 1500m to automatically qualify for the event's semifinal on Friday morning.

Cyclist Sam Webster is in the second round of the keirin, but team mate Eddie Dawkins, silver medallist in the event at the world champs of 2015 and this year, was eliminated in the repechage stage.