Australian canoe paddlers have earned Australia three extra boats at the London Olympic Games with their performances on the first day of the 2012 Sprint Oceania Championships in Penrith on Friday.

The Men’s K1 200m, Men’s C1 200m and the Women’s K1 200m were added to the men’s K4, women’s K4 and women’s K1 500m, which were earned at the 2011 World Championship.

Ken Wallace's younger sister Bernadette Wallace came 4th in the WK1 200m Olympic qualifying heat, but earned the quota through the convoluted qualification criteria.

Heat winner Lisa Carrington had already qualified for the Olympic Games by winning the world championships in 2011 in the WK1 200m, and second placed Jo Brigden Jones, of Sydney, could not earn a quota because she had already qualified as part of the women’s K4. Wallace therefore secured Australia a quota place.

In the final Carrington narrowly defeated Australian Alana Nicholls. But Nicholls was the highest placed Australian in what doubled as the second Australian nomination race. Nicholls won the first nomination race yesterday ahead of Brigden-Jones and Hannah Davis.

Queensland’s Joel Simpson qualified Australia in the men’s K1 200 sprint heat. Simpson crossed the finish line at the Sydney International Regatta Centre in 36.7s, 1.96s ahead of fellow Australian Nick Dawe. Simpson backed up his performance with a win in the final ahead of Matthew Urquhart and the winner of the first nomination race yesterday, Murray Stewart.

NSW paddler Sebastien Marczak earned the C1 200m quota by winning the qualification heat, and is also the favourite to earn Olympic nomination.

In yesterday's action:

Murray Stewart and Alana Nicholls won the first men's and women's K1 200 Nomination trials, with Queensland young guns Alex Haas and Jake Donaghey powering to victory in C2 1000 capping off a great day of racing.

Stewart cruised through the morning heats, powering out of the start gates to lead by half a boat length at the half way mark before easing off in the final 50m to finish second behind Gold Coast’s Matt Urquhart and conserve energy for the afternoon final.

The tactic paid dividends, and in a closely fought final with just over half a second separating the top 5 paddlers, Stewart stamped his claim as the one to beat, building on the impressive form he showed in January at the Paddle NSW sprint Championships taking out the men’s K1 200 Olympic Nomination trial in 36.30, 0.29s clear of Urquhart, with Heat 1 winner Joel Simpson finishing third.

Earlier in the day Queensland young guns Alex Haas and Jake Donaghey left the more experienced pair Sebastian Marczak and Ferenc Szekszardi in their wake, powering to victory in the men’s C2 1000 DF to finish 6.45 seconds clear in 3:55.62.

2011 World Cup gold medallist Alana Nicholls continued her march towards Olympic nomination with victory in the women’s K1 200 direct final. The 26 year old Bayswater paddler finished 0.48 seconds clear of Sydney Northern Beaches’ paddler Jo Brigden-Jones, with Holdfast Bay’s Hannah Davis in third.

Infostrada and Australian Canoeing