Was this the fastest Olympic sprint canoeing ever?

What a sensational Olympics for sprint canoeing!
The Tokyo 2020 Canoe Sprint events have been run and won at Sea Forest Waterway in Japan. The Olympics is important to demonstrate the athleticism involved in our paddling sports and promote our sport on the most viewed world stage.
Now that the boat wash has settled on the regatta course only 3 Olympic Best (OB) times still remain out of the existing 9 Olympic events and 3 new ones have been set. The conditions played a large part with salt water and tail wind conditions only tempered by the heat at the course with many paddlers wearing ice vests to stay cool.
Though not all the heat was in the weather with hot contests on the water seeing Olympic Best times being set and reset multiple times throughout the heats, semi-finals, quarter-finals and finals. In this blog we’d like to highlight some of the amazing performances of the fastest paddlers setting Olympic Best times in these Olympics:
K1 Kayak Single 200m (Women’s)
Lisa Carrington (NZL) started her Olympic campaign strongly without letting a single paddler get the nose of their boat in front of hers from the heats to the finals. She broke her Rio Olympics record in the semi-final 1 and then her own new record in the A Final.
This win is made even more special that it makes 3 gold from 3 Olympics (London, Rio & now Tokyo) in the 200m event. She is and will be the only Olympic gold medallist in this event and will remain as such until the event re-enters the Olympic regatta scene.
Of worthy note in the 200m women’s K1 is Teresa Portela (ESP) who competed in her 6th Olympics and won silver and then Emma Jorgensen who won bronze both clearing Lisa’s OB time from Rio. Times below:
Existing OB |
WK1 200m |
39.864 |
NZL |
Lisa Carrington |
Rio de Janeiro (BRA) |
2016 |
Semi-final 1 |
WK1 200m |
38.127 |
NZL |
Lisa Carrington |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
A Final |
WK1 200m |
38.120 |
NZL |
Lisa Carrington |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
K1 Kayak Single 200m (Men’s)
Fast conditions in the 200m saw Petter Menning (SWE) steal Liam Heath’s (GBR) Rio Olympics OB time in Heat 1 of the event. Saul Craviotto (ESP) and Evgenii Lukanstov (ROC) slipped in ahead of Liam’s Olympic Best time too.
However, this was short lived with Kolos Csizmadia (HUN) replying by shaving a fraction off the new OB in Heat 2. Once again several paddlers breaking the recently set record with Heat 2’s Carlos Arevalo (ESP) and Liam Heath (GBR) also getting in ahead of Petter Menning’s time from Heat 1. Liam Heath then returned to his OB throne in the Quarter finals to collect a bronze in the A finals.
Existing OB |
MK1 200m |
35.197 |
GBR |
HEATH Liam |
Rio de Janeiro (BRA) |
2016 |
Heat 1 |
MK1 200m |
34.698 |
SWE |
MENNING Petter |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
Heat 2 |
MK1 200m |
34.442 |
HUN |
CSIZMADIA Kolos |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
Quarter-Final 2 |
MK1 200m |
33.985 |
GBR |
HEATH Liam |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
K1 Kayak Single 500m (Women’s)
Rita Koban’s (HUN) 500m record from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was one of the few Olympic Best times to survive these Olympics. Her time of 1:47:64 was kept safe from Lisa Carrington and reigning World Record holder Caitlin Regal (nee Ryan) with her World Record time of 1:46:576.
K1 Kayak 1000m (Men’s)
This blue-ribbon event did not disappoint. Master technician, Knut Holmann’s, 1996 record fell first to Balint Kopasz who put a show of force on to break the OB time in semi-final 1. This only lasted until the next race when Fernando Pimenta’s usual strategy of a fast start seemed to continue fast throughout the race as he dropped the Olympic Best into 3min 22secs range. Balint obviously didn’t like this as he charged in the A final to post an Olympic Best and stealing Max Hoff’s World Record title for the K1 1000m. Well done Balint!
Existing OB |
MK1 1000m |
03:25:785 |
NOR |
HOLMANN Knut |
Atlanta (USA) |
1996 |
Semi-Final 1 |
MK1 1000m |
03:24:558 |
HUN |
KOPASZ Balint |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
Semi-Final 2 |
MK1 1000m |
03:22:942 |
POR |
PIMENTA Fernando |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
A Final |
MK1 1000m |
03:20:643 |
HUN |
KOPASZ Balint |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
K2 Kayak Double 1000m (Men’s)
“What’s an Olympic Best?” Tom Green was caught asking on an Instagram Story at the end of Heat 1. Although not tested on the international stage this crew of Jean and Tom (AUS) were outstanding. Demonstrating maturity in their racing and belief in their race strategy these gentlemen blasted onto the world stage. For their efforts they achieved a well fought and well-deserved gold medal in the final. We can’t wait to see what happens in the years to come for this crew as they took a 25 year old record away from the Italian K2 masters of Antonie Rossi and Daniele Scarpa.
Existing OB |
MK2 1000m |
03:09:190 |
ITA |
Antonio Rossi |
Atlanta (USA) |
1996 |
Heat 1 |
MK2 1000m |
03:08:773 |
AUS |
Tom Green |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
K2 Kayak Double 500m (Women’s)
The women’s K2 500m was one of many events at this Olympics which had records set and moments later reset between the heats and finals. Bodonyi and Kozak, of Hungary, were the first to show their power in the semi-final 1 which was swiftly responded to by Lisa Carrington and Caitlin Regal (nee Ryan). Caitlin, being the holder of the world’s fastest K1 500m women’s time, made for a strong K2 crew with Lisa and would later go on to the A Final to deliver Lisa’s 2nd gold medal in 90min (from her K1 200m gold) as well as set new Olympic Best (OB) time in the process.
Existing OB |
WK2 500m |
1:38:101 |
HUN |
Katalin Kovacs |
London (GBR) |
2012 |
Semi-Final 1 |
WK2 500m |
1:37:912 |
HUN |
Dora Bodonyi |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
Semi-Final 2 |
WK2 500m |
1:36:724 |
NZL |
Lisa Carrington |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
A Final |
WK2 500m |
1:35:785 |
NZL |
Lisa Carrington |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
K4 Kayak Four 500m (Women’s)
The London 2012 time of Polish K4 Marta Walcykiewicz, Aneta Konieczna, Karolina Naja, and Beata Mikolajczyk was safe for this Olympics. Their time of 1:30:338 was safe with weather conditions changing on the Japanese course as a front moved through for these races. The 2021 Polish crew finished 3rd behind the Hungarians and Belarussians in a quality final.
K4 Kayak Four 500m (Men’s)
A new event for the Olympics the K4 500m men’s race sees the powerful 200m paddlers extend themselves for the extra distance and the 1000m sprint paddlers trade their pace endurance for power. A good compromise to join these two types of paddlers to showcase them to the world.
The identical crew (can someone comment if the seat order was the same?) and world record holders Germany, fronted these Olympics with the same intent for speed. They set the Olympic Best time in Heat 1. Their main rival, the Spanish crew, didn’t waste time posting a new OB. This strong Spanish time was not to be broken in these Olympics as the weather changed to be less favourable during the semis to finals.
The two crews would go on to the final to dual it out for Gold with the German crew winning gold, Spain silver and Slovakia in a close bronze.
WR |
MK4 500m |
1:17:734 |
GER |
Max Lenke |
Racice (CZE) |
2017 |
Heat 1 |
MK4 500m |
1:21:890 |
GER |
Max Lenke |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
Heat 2 |
MK4 500m |
1:21:658 |
ESP |
Carlos Arevalo |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
C1 Canoe Single 200m (Women’s)
A new race for the Olympics this event showcased some of the best of the single bladed C1 canoeists with Ukrainian Liudmyla Luzan posting the first Olympic Best time. This was not going to last long with the favourite, Nevin Harrison (USA) and reigning World Champion 2019, nosed into the start buckets of the next Heat. She didn’t disappoint and stole the OB title and then went on to take Gold in the finals. Setting up a great career ahead for the young paddler!
WR |
WC1 200m |
0:44:504 |
CAN |
Laurence Vincent-Lapointe |
Szeged (HUN) |
2018 |
Heat 1 |
WC1 200m |
00:45:571 |
UKR |
LUZAN Liudmyla |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
Heat 2 |
WC1 200m |
00:44:938 |
USA |
Nevin Harrison |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
C1 Canoe Single 1000m (Men’s)
The legend of Spanish canoeing David Cal (ESP) retained his title as the fastest Olympic C1 paddler with no one in the field able to best his time of 3:46:201 from the Athens Olympics in 2004.
Though the coach connection between Cal and the Brazil’s gold medallist, Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos, proved to be a recipe for gold with the late, Jesus Morlan (ESP). Before Morlan’s passing in 2018, he had left a gift to his athlete with a training plan to follow to these Olympics which Queiroz dos Santos must have followed with dedication.
C2 Canoe Double 500m (Women’s)
There are some crews which stand out from the rest. The Chinese C2 crew of Sun and Xu started and finished proceedings dominantly by opening with a show of power to post a new OB and then finishing by breaking their own time in the Finals to claim gold. Powerful racing!
WR |
WC2 500m |
1:51:428 |
CAN |
Laurence Vincent-Lapointe |
Duisburg GER |
2018 |
Heat 1 |
WC2 500m |
01:57:870 |
CHN |
Mengya SUN |
Tokyo |
2021 |
Final A |
WC2 500m |
01:55:495 |
CHN |
Mengya SUN |
Tokyo |
2021 |
C2 Canoe Double 1000m (Men’s)
The C2 Men’s final was a sensational demonstration of pace control and cadence with the Cuban C2 crew powering through a stacked field to steal the gold and the OB title for at least 3 years.
In the semi-finals China and Germany traded the OB title with the previous 25-year-old record of the German crew being sunk by the Chinese.
The A Final performance was a real spectacle with the Chinese favourites going out fast, leaving the Cubans and German’s to chase. The Cuban’s revealed their real power to come home fast in the dying metres of the race to take the win, the gold and the OB time.
Existing OB |
MC2 1000m |
3:31:870 |
GER |
Andreas Dittmer |
Atlanta (USA) |
1996 |
Semi 1 |
MC2 1000m |
3:27:023 |
CHN |
Hao Liu |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
Semi 2 |
MC2 1000m |
03:26:812 |
GER |
Sebastian Brendal |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
Final A |
MC2 1000m |
03:3:24:995 |
CUB |
Fernando Dayan Jorge Enriquez |
Tokyo (JPN) |
2021 |
Congratulations to all athletes who competed and especially those who posted these Olympic Best times. To check out the full results click here.
And let’s get ready to see all the sprint canoe action at the Paralympics in a few weeks’ time here.
Worth celebrating too, are the events K1 200m (men’s/women’s) and K2 1000m (men’s) that will have their Olympic Best times stay in the history books for many years to come. These events will unfortunately not be at the Paris 2024 Olympic.
Regardless, there will be plenty to celebrate in Paris 2024 and only a short 3 year wait to go and many new young talents having their first taste at this year’s Olympics we hope the future continues to shine brighter for sprint canoeing.
Paris 2024 Sprint Canoe events:
K1 Kayak Single 1000m (Men’s)
K1 Kayak Single 500m (Women’s)
K2 Kayak Double 500m (Women’s / Men’s)
K4 Kayak Four 500m (Women’s / Men’s)
C1 Canoe Single 1000m (Men’s)
C1 Canoe Single 200m (Women’s)
C2 Canoe Double 500m (Women’s / Men’s)
Banner image credit: Nikolay Vinokurov / Alamy Stock Photo
- Kieran Babich
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