CANOE/KAYAK - SPRINT - Competition heated up on day 2, with the boys paddling their way through some highly contested heats of the men’s K1 200m and men’s K2 200m.

Hungarian paddler Sandor Totka qualified fastest in heat one of the K1 200m with a time of 38.19. While Aussie Charlie Copeland followed close behind in a time of 38.51.

New Zealander Zac Quickenden proved kiwis can fly with a winning run in heat two of the K1 200m with a time of 38.73, following up from his bronze in the K1 1000m and silver in the K2 1000m on Wednesday.

Aussies Kieran Carson and Ben McLean battled their way across the line behind Quickenden with times of 38.83 and 38.91 respectively to qualify. Whilst Aussie Victor Gebraski narrowly missed out on the final by 0.23 of a second.

Both Rebecca Mann from Victoria and West Australian paddler Shannon Reynolds qualified straight through to the women’s K1 200m final, winning their heats  with times of 45.83 and 45.03 respectively. Tara McAleenan (QLD) and Madison Davies (SA) qualified for the semi-final later this afternoon.

Reynolds  was extremely happy with how she performed in the heat, “I just decided I had to concentrate on myself and that was definitely my best race.”

“Hopefully I’ll be up there (in the finals),” she said “New Zealand and China are my main competition, they are both going so well, especially China which is good for them.”

Claudia Rhodes-White
Olympics.com.au