While a lot of the attention was on the men, the Australian women went to work and delivered their country’s first four entries to the 2012 Olympics during today’s action at the 2011 ICF World Sprint Championships.

The quartet of Rachel Lovell (QLD), Hannah Davis (SA), Jo Brigden-Jones (NSW) and Lyndsie Fogarty (QLD) finished third in their semifinal heat with a time of 1:33.019, earning them not only a spot in tomorrow’s K4 500m final but a berth for the team in the Olympic games in London next year.

“Mission accomplished,” said Martin Marinov, Australian Head Coach. “We knew it was going to be tough but it’s the best time this crew has had, so all is going according to plan.” Other Aussie women making a serious statement at these Championships were the K2 1000 duo of Alyce Burnett and Hailey McGinty.

What a difference two years makes. After their first round heat, the women were clearly fatigued by the effort. “I can’t feel my legs or arms,” McGinty only half-jokingly said. But an outside observer probably wouldn’t have guessed how gassed the ladies claimed to be as they finished at the top of their semifinal heat and at the top of their class with a 3:50.948.

Also quietly storming to the top of her class was Naomi Flood (NSW) in K1 1000 who looked focused and oddly relaxed as she glided across the finish line with the best time of her class, 4:04.213. In this, only her second year paddling, Flood said she had nothing to lose as she chased her goal of making the A final. “I’ve accomplished my goal for the year,” Flood said.

It wasn’t quite so sunny among the men’s ranks on the team. The biggest shocker of the day occurred when as Beijing Olympic medallist Ken Wallace failed to advance to the finals. Wallace, who skipped this spring’s World Cup season due to illness, finished third in his semifinal, costing him a berth in the final.

“Sometimes the semis are harder than the finals as there’s a lot of good guys going really fast. It used to be there were only five or six who could really turn it on but with the field is much deeper now; it’s going to be pretty gnarly in London,” Wallace predicted.

Also failing to make the K2 1000 A final and a chance at two more Olympic berths for Australia were Luke Morrison (SA) and Murray Stewart (NSW).

National Performance Director and ICF Second Vice President Richard Fox explained Wallace, Morrison and Stewart could still earn Olympic quotas in their events if they top the podium at the 2012 Oceania Canoe Slalom Continental Championships in Sydney in March.

Another surprise, this one for the good, was the men’s C4 1000 team which advanced to the final with a time of 3:39.466, good for a third place finish in their semifinal heat and ticket to the finals. The team is an eclectic mix of newbies Jake Donaghey and Alex Haas of Queensland, men’s C1 and C2 200 national champ Sebastien Marzcak (NSW) and Ferenc Szekszardi (WA) who originally hails from sprint powerhouse Hungary.

For all the exciting results of the semifinals, Flood, ever the pragmatist reminded that there’s still work to be done in tomorrow’s finals. “There’s nothing to write home about yet,” she said.

Australian Canoeing