ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships: Germany regains men's K-4 500m crown as 86 athletes secure Paris 2024 quotas for their federations
Germany and New Zealand's K-4 crews and Cuba's Yarisleidis Cirilo Duboys were among the big winners on the first day of competition in Duisburg.
Germany reclaimed the highly-contested men’s K-4 500m title on the first day of competition at the 2023 Canoe Sprint World Championships in front of their home crowds in Duisburg, to avenge for a bitter loss to Spain the year before.
It was the same four canoeists in the boat for the championships hosts, but a drastically different result. As a bonus, the gold medal also came with an Olympic quota for Germany.
A total of 86 quotas to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were handed out on the first day, which also saw New Zealand's women's K-4 crew and Cuba's Yarisleidis Cirilo Duboys paddle away with the gold.
Heavy rain pounded the race course in the afternoon, delaying the competition for several hours. This did not seem to dampen the spirits of Spain's delegation, however, who sat cheerfully under Spanish flag-inspired umbrellas as they waited for racing to resume.
Their cheers were later heard as Spanish canoeists picked up four medals across the day's finals, with Antia Jacome quickly switching from the women's C-1 200m to the C-2 200m to bring her nation two silver medals.
Notable absences among the Spanish medallists included last year's men's K-4 500m champions. The top-ranked crew in the world only managed seventh place in a race that saw Germany set an relentless pace on the quest to reclaim their world title.
Tokyo 2020 K-4 champions Max Rendschmidt, Max Lemke and Tom Liebscher-Lucz joined forces with K-2 silver medallist Jacob Schopf to cross the finish line in 1:19.183 and revive the nation's hopes of winning a third consecutive gold medal at the Olympics in the event.
Hungary took silver while world no.2 Ukraine took bronze.
It wasn't all celebration for the hosts, however, as their other top medal hope, the women's K-4 team, finished off the podium. The no.1 ranked team fell behind in eighth place as underdogs New Zealand soared into the top spot.
Ranked No.13, New Zealand managed to surpass not only Germany but also defending champions Poland and Olympic champions Hungary to finish in 1:30.606. Poland ultimately settled for silver while Spain rounded off the podium.
Athletes from the top 10 K-4 crews among the men and women obtained quota spots for their National Olympic Committees.
For men's K-4 500m, the quotas went to Germany, Hungary, Ukraine, Australia, Lithuania, Spain, Serbia, Poland and Canada.
For the women K4 500m, the quotas went to New Zealand, Poland, Spain, China, Australia, Serbia, Hungary, Germany, Norway and Canada.
Earlier in the day, Cuba's Cirilo Duboys won her first individual world title. The women's C-2 200m champion at the 2022 Canoe Sprint World Championships was golden in the C-1 200m, finishing in a time of 44.799 ahead of Spain's Jacome and China's Lin Wenjun.
She fell into the water at the finsh line, but on hearing about the result of the race, she soon turned that flop into a victory celebration.
Six top-ranked athletes from the women's C-2 200m secured Olympic quotas. These went to Cuba, Spain, China, USA, Chile and Canada.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at Paris 2024 depends on their NOCs selecting them to represent their delegation.