ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships: Lisa Carrington wins fourth K-1 500 gold medal
The New Zealand paddling legend added to the gold she won the day before as a member of the K-4 crew. Defending Olympic champions Shixiao Xu and Mengya Sun added a third C-2 500 title on the second day of the global event.
New Zealand legend Lisa Carrington paddled to a fourth gold medal in the women’s K-1 500 at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships in Duisburg, Germany on Saturday (26 August).
The five-time Olympian now boasts 14 gold medals from the championships - including eight in the K-200 - since she won her maiden title in 2011. The day before Carrington and teammates Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett and Tara Vaughan became the first K4 crew from New Zealand to win a world championship title.
The 34-year-old Carrington was in a class of her own in the K-1 500 storming across the line more than a second ahead of her nearest rival in a time of 1:47.769. Emma Aastrand Jorgensen of Denmark followed in second place in 1:49.102 with Hungarian paddler Tamara Csipes bagged the bronze in 1:50.699. Six quota slots for Paris 2024 Olympic Games were available in the final.
Aside from her three gold medals at Tokyo 2020, New Zealand’s most successful Olympian has picked up gold medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016 and will be looking to extend that streak in Paris 2024.
Germany’s three-time Olympic champion Sebastian Brendel showed no sign of slowing down at his home world championships winning bronze in his specialist C-1 1000 event on Saturday. Brendel, who has won a total of 13 world titles since 2013, again landed on the podium finish behind Czech winner Martin Fuksa. Fuksa claimed his third world title in 3:45.124 edging Romania’s Catalin Chirila (3:45.95) into second place. The first five boats secured quota places.
Olympic silver medallist Fernando Pimenta raced to his third K-1 1000m title narrowly beating Hungarian Adam Varga into second place with a time of 3:27.712. Local hero Jakob Thordsen of Germany rounded out the podium following in a close third place in 3:28.303. Quota slots for the first six boats were available for Paris 2024.
Defending Olympic champions Shixiao Xu and Mengya Sun of the People’s Republic of China won a third world title in their specialist C-2 500 event. The pair stormed to victory in a time of 1:52.775 beating the Spanish crew of Antia Jacome and Maria Corbera (1:52.916) by the narrowest of margins. Sloan Mackenzie and Katie Vincent of Canada followed in third place in 1:52.956. Eight top-ranked athletes from the women's C-2 500m secured Olympic quotas.
All quota places are awarded to the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) rather than a specific athlete. An athlete can only secure one quota for their NOC with the NOCs able to enter a maximum of two athletes in each of the individual events at Paris 2024.
As NOCs have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.