The first day of sprint competition on Dorney Lake saw heats and semifinals in four events: 1000-meter men's single kayak, 1000-meter men's single canoe, 1000-meter men's double kayak, and 500-meter women's four-person kayak. And in each event, top athletes of the last several years positioned themselves for a shot at medals.
The event took place in the early morning hours of Central Time, but
NBC showed some tape-delayed coverage later in the morning here, and I
saw the semifinals of all the classes except K4W.
In the K1 and C1 classes, the top four boats in each semifinal moved on to Wednesday's A-final, where the medalists will be decided. There will also be a B-final on Wednesday to determine places 9-16.
In 1000-meter K1, reigning world champion Adam van Koeverden of Canada had the day's best time while winning his semifinal, and 2009 and 2010 world champion Max Hoff of Germany won the other semifinal. The two have contrasting styles, van Koeverden taking long, smooth strokes while Hoff's strokes are short and choppy, almost ugly. Either way, the men move their boats at impressive speed and appear ready for an exciting showdown on Wednesday. Others making the A-final included Beijing Olympic silver medalist Eirik Veras Larsen of Norway and 2011 world silver medalist Ander Gustafsson of Sweden. Reigning Olympic champion Tim Brabants of Great Britain made the A-final too, but just barely: he was the last boat to advance out of his preliminary heat, and in his semifinal he faded out of the top four in mid-race, only to mount a furious charge at the finish to take fourth by less than a tenth of a second.
Next came the 1000-meter C1 event, and I have to say that Olympic flatwater canoeists are truly some impressive physical specimens. All world class paddlers are quite muscular and fit, of course, but the canoe flatties really have that Mr. Universe look. There's no better example than reigning Olympic and world champion Attila Vajda of Hungary: his torso looks like a stack of bricks, and anybody who thinks paddling is done strictly with the arms needs to watch Vajda propel his boat forward with his massive quadriceps muscles.
Vajda actually settled for second in his semifinal, just doing what he had to do to make Wednesday's A-final. The German Sebastien Brendel, a two-time world bronze medalist, won the semi. David Cal of Spain, silver medalist at both Beijing and the 2011 worlds, took third, and Uzbekistan's Vadim Menkov, world champion in 2009 and 2010, finished fourth. The other semifinal did not feature such heavyweights, but included paddlers to watch in Mathieu Goubel of France and Mark Oldershaw of Canada.
In 1000-meter K2, the winning boat from each of the two preliminary heats advanced straight to Wednesday's A-final. 2010 world champions Martin Hollstein and Andreas Ihle of Germany won the first heat, and Rudolf Dombi and Roland Kokeny of Hungary won the second.
The rest of the boats raced in the two semifinals, with the top three in each making the A-final. 2011 world silver medalists Markus Oscarsson and Henrik Nilsson of Sweden won the first semi, and reigning world champions Peter Gelle and Erik Vlcek of Slovakia took the second. 2010 world bronze medalists Ilya Medvedev and Anton Ryakhov of Russia also moved through to the A-final.
The 500-meter K4W event was the only one NBC did not show in its on-air coverage, so I did not actually see what happened there. With only eleven boats entered, the two heat winners went straight to the A-final, and everybody else raced in one semifinal, with the top six making one eight-boat final, and the other three teams eliminated.
Poland's foursome finished last in its heat (albeit with the sixth-best time among the eleven K4Ws). So it was on to the semifinal for them. But there, they uncorked a world-best time of one minute, 30.338 seconds. On average, they were moving their boat at about 12.38 miles per hour.
Eric Giddens, a U.S. Olympian in whitewater slalom kayak back in 1996, continues to be the analyst for NBC this week. I think he is doing a nice job even though sprint was not his specialty. He's one of the people I admired back when I was racing slalom: not only was he an exceptional athlete, but also he brought a very keen intellect to the job.
Tomorrow, four more classes will go through this heat and semifinal routine: 1000-meter men's four-person kayak, 1000-meter men's double canoe, 500-meter women's single kayak, and 500-meter women's double kayak. A U.S. athlete will compete for the first time tomorrow, as Carrie Johnson of San Diego will race the women's single kayak event.
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