A number of British boats secured A Final spots for tomorrow on the opening day of the second canoe sprint World Cup of the season, taking place in Poznan, Poland.
Melissa Johnson, Rebii Simon, Emily Lewis and Jonathan Jones & Ben Phillips will all be racing A Finals tomorrow.
Melissa Johnson (Chelmsford) and Rebii Simon (Elmbridge) both booked their places directly in the women's K1 1000m A Final tomorrow morning.
With a top three heat finish needed to skip the semi-finals, Johnson put down a great early run in her heat to place third in a time of 4:21.12.
Simon lined up in heat two as she was part of the leading trio looking to progress through. Her time of 4:16.82 was just a second off a heats win, as she placed third too like her British teammate.
On her first race of the 2024 season, Simon said:
“I'm happy to make it straight through to the A Final. There was a really quick turnaround between the heat and the semi-final, so it's great to avoid that.
“It's my first international of the season and the first time I've raced internationally in the K1 1000m for around six years, so I was getting a feel for how it was going to go and it's great to secure the A Final.
“It's my focus for the season, I'm looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow and racing the final.”
Fresh from winning bronze in Szeged, Hungary two weeks ago, Emily Lewis (Worcester) will take on another women's K1 200m A Final tomorrow after an emphatic semi-final win to round off day one of racing.
Finishing third in her heat, Lewis got off to a fantastic start in the semi-final to have a visible lead. She maintained that distance well to cross the line in 41.62, 0.76 ahead of the nearest competitor.
Opening the day for Britain, Jonathan Jones (Fladbury) and Ben Phillips (Richmond) were back in an international boat together as they took on the men's C2 500m.
Finishing fourth in their heat, the pair had a quick turnaround for the semi-finals, where they put down an improved time of 1:54.48 to book their spot in the A Final.
Tom Lambert (Lincoln) will race tomorrow's C1 500m B Final after finishing fourth in the semi-finals this afternoon.
Lambert pushed the top three all the way, but narrowly missed out on the A Final with his time of 2:00.90 just one second off.
Zoe Clark (Royal) and Kristina Armstrong (Scottish Performance Squad) combined as a pair for the first time internationally as they raced the women's K2 500m.
The U23 crew put down two great efforts to kick off their season, including a 1:52.13 in the semi-finals, but sadly they couldn't quite progress into the final as they finished eighth.
There were two British pairs making their senior international debuts as a crew in the men's K2 500m.
Matt Johnson (Chelmsford) raced alongside Matt Collinge (Fowey) whilst Benji Cabrera (Fowey) combined with Phil Miles (Royal Leamington Spa), as the two boats lined up in the same semi-final after going through their respective heats.
Not much separated the two, as Johnson and Collinge finished 6th in 1:37.29, a second ahead of Cabrera and Miles in seventh. Unfortunately both crews didn't progress to the A Final.
The full results and start list can be found here
How to watch
Planet Canoe YouTube channel members will have exclusive access to live coverage of all the major International Canoe Federation events in 2024 for £8.99 a month.
Sign into YouTube, or create an account, and click JOIN to watch uninterrupted live coverage of the world’s best paddlers competing for top honours.
Sign in to YouTube, or create an account
Go to Planet Canoe’s channel
Click ‘JOIN’ and fill out your payment details
After becoming a member, you will have access to the exclusive members tab and can watch members-only content.