Day 2 of the ICF Sprint & Paracanoe World Cup in Szeged, Hungary proved fruitful for the Kiwi Kayak Sprint team, Scott Martlew was the first to medal with Silver in the KL2 200m, followed by bronze for the Women’s K4. Both Kiwi Women’s K1 500m paddlers, Dame Lisa Carrington and Aimee Fisher won their semi finals, advancing to the highly anticipated A final.
After a great first day the Men’s Paracanoe athletes Scott Martlew (KL2) and Corbin Hart (KL3) secured their place in the A final of their respective classes. Scott looked strong throughout his final and held on for silver in a photo finish just behind Australian Curtis McGrath. Nathan Luce (GM Performance Canoe Racing NZ) said, “Scott’s silver medal performance was especially impressive since he was able to beat two of the athletes who were ahead of him at last year’s World Championships”. Corban finished in 5th place in his final, a great result for the start of the international season.
The Women’s K4 500m crew Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin, Tara Vaughan and Olivia Brett continued their compelling form winning bronze in the A final. It was an extremely tight battle against Spain (Silver) and China (Gold), the Chinese team made a huge push in the last half, Australia couldn’t hold on to their initial lead to medal.
Five-time Olympic champion and reigning K1 Women’s World Champion Lisa Carrington, and Aimee Fisher both secured their places in the Women’s K1 500m A final, with commanding performances in their semi finals. Aimee set a blistering pace to win her semi-final, stopping the clock at 1.54.33, the fastest time of all three semi finals.
Lisa and Aimee will line up next to each other to battle it out for a spot on the Women’s K1 500m podium against other top contenders including Alyce Wood of Australia and Canoe Marathon World Champion Melina Andersson of Sweden in the A Final, Saturday evening 9.37pm NZT.
Ashton Reiser finished in 7th place in both his KM 200m and KM 500m semi finals, seeing him head to the C Final. Ashton placed 1st in the K1 Men’s 500m C Final and will race the 200m C Final tonight.
Quaid Thompson, the 2023 Men’s K1 1000m New Zealand national champion finished 8th in his semi-final against a fast pack.
The brand new Men’s K4 500m combination of Max Brown, Zach Ferkins, Kurtis Imrie and Hamish Legarth narrowly missed out in the A final in a supremely tight semi-final with the defending Olympic Champions Germany. The New Zealand men finished in 5th place, with just .73 seconds separating the top 5 boats. The crew went on to finish their first World Cup with a 5th place in the B final.
“Overall, a great day for New Zealand and I’m sure there will be some fantastic follow up performances Saturday to add to the New Zealand medal tally. It was amazing to see the Women’s K4 500m crew win the bronze medal, following up their breakout results last season against an even more competitive field. As a team we’re very excited to see what’s in store for this year’s World Championships in Duisburg, Germany in August”, Nathan Luce (GM Performance).
Racing continues over the next 2 days with exciting finals on the program for Saturday, the livestream coverage starts again at 7pm NZT.
