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Olympic Racing Preview: K1W 200m Lisa and K1M 1000m Marty


August 15, 2016

The wait is almost over: Lisa Carrington and Marty McDowell start racing Monday

Huge day of racing at Rio Monday for Lisa Carrington and Marty McDowell. With only a couple of hours between the heats and the semis, a speedy recovery between races will be crucial.

 

The race course and weather forecast

Thank goodness the New Zealand Kayakers came up through surf lifesaving - we are better prepared than most for dealing with the choppy conditions experienced by the rowers on the course.

There are extremely tricky conditions: variations of wind speed and strength over the length of the course including quite strong wind gusts. What's more, the deep water in the lake can create a swell, plus it has a high salt water content which affects buoyancy for the boat.

Canoe Sprint Course at Rio Olympics 2016

Canoe Sprint Course at Rio Olympics 2016. Image thanks to CRNZ

Fortunately Lisa Carrington and the Women's K4 team are paddling Nelo Cinco K1 and Nelo Cinco K4 boats that have a new inverted hull design which keeps the Nelo Cinco closer to its optimum trim for longer. In choppy conditions, the extra stability can help the paddler focus more on the racing and less on the waves, which could be a real advantage.

All of us in the New Zealand team come from a surf lifesaving background, so we're well used to using those stabilising muscles in the surf! We've been watching the conditions at the rowing with interest but we're not too fazed to see a bit of wind and chop.
Marty McDowell


The weather forecast for Monday is excellent - sunny, high of 33ºC (about 27ºC for the first race), humidity of 50%, wind North Easterly of 9 km gusting to 11km, which is OK.

 

Monday's Racing

Lisa Carrington Races in Day 2 of the ICF World Cup 2016

Women's K1 200m: Lisa Carrington

In Lane 5, Lisa Carrington is the favourite for Heat 1, scheduled for 9.38am on Monday morning (00.38 Tuesday NZT). She'll progress to Semifinal 1 at 11:00am (02:00 NZT). The Final is raced on Tuesday at 9:47am (Wednesday 00:47am NZT).

If Carrington wins another gold medal in the K1 200m and the Gold in the K1 500m, she will be the most decorated female NZ olympian with 3 gold medals, followed by Valarie Adams (2 gold, 1 silver).

 

Who are Lisa Carrington's main competitors?

Since winning gold in the first ever K1W 200m Olympic race in London 2012, Carrington has won all 12 major races in which she participated: world titles in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and nine World Cup events, including in 2016 in Duisburg and Montemor-o-Velho.

Her last defeat in a major women's K1 200m race came at the world cup in Duisburg in May 2012, when Natasa Douchev-Janic of Hungary in 2012, at the World Cup Duisburg (who took the bronze medal in London).

Ever the bridesmaid, Marta Walczykiewicz (Poland) finished second behind Carrington at each of the last four world championships.

Inna Osipenko-Rodomska (Azerbaijan) the silver medallist at London 2012, which she claimed while representing Ukraine. She could become the first Azerbaijani medallist representing in any canoe sprint event (men or women).

Sarah Guyot (France) won the only world cup race in 2016 in which Carrington was not competing, in Racice in May, and won the European title in 2016.

For excellent profiles on most of the athletes check out the ICF website.

 

START LIST: K1W 200m Heat 1

2 KARIM Menatalla (Egypt)
3 LAIA Francisca (Portugal)
4 DOUCHEV-JANIC Natasa (Hungary)
5 CARRINGTON Lisa (New Zealand)
6 MOLDOVAN Olivera (Serbia)
7 ZHOU Yu (China)
8 TORIBIONG Marina (Palau)

For the compete start lists and live results go to the Rio Olympics Official Website

Progression: 6th or higher go though to Semifinal
Semifinals: 1st and 2nd plus two best 3rd place times go to A final

 

Men's K1 1000m: Marty McDowell

Marty McDowell has drawn Lane 8 in Heat 3, scheduled to start at 10.06am (01:06 Tuesday NZT). He needs to place 5th or better to make the Semifinals, which start at 11:14am (2:14am NZT). The final is raced on Tuesday at 10:04am (01:04am Wednesday NZT) with the A Final raced straight afterwards.

As three-time NZ Surf Ski Champion, Mcdowell may be advantaged by choppy conditions, should they arise.

Marty McDowell is up against a killer pack in his heat. Max Hoff (Germany), Fernando Pimenta (Portugal) are both potential medal winners which leaves Marty a best able to place 3rd. To progress to the Semifinals he needs 5th or better.

We are hopeful McDowell can make it to the A Final, but be warned this field is outstanding, with several really, really strong and experienced paddlers competing.

 

Who are Marty McDowell's main competition?

Despite Norway winning gold in four of the last five K1M1000m races, no Norwegian has managed to qualify for the K1M 1000m Rio Games.

Max Hoff (Germany), Adam Van Koeverden (Canada), Josef Dostal (Czeche Republic) and Rene Holten (Denmark) are old hands who have been sharing the glory over the last few years at various World Cups and World Champs. Dostal won two of three World Cup 2016 races, so is slightly the favourite.

Fernando Pimenta of Portugal is also strong, having won the European Champs this year.

If Van Koeverden wins gold he will have a matching gold-silver-bronze set of Olympic medals.

 

Start List: K1M 1000m Heat 3

2 MOCHALOV Aleksey (Uzbekistan)
3 WALZ Marcus (Spain)
4 HOFF Max (Germany)
5 PIMENTA Fernando (Portugal)
6 PETERS Artuur (Belgium)
7 MRABET Mohamed Ali (Tunisia)
8 MCDOWELL Marty (New Zealand)

For the compete start lists for heats and live results go to the Rio Olympics Official Website

Progression: 5th or higher go though to Semifinal
Semifinals: 1st to 4th go to A final; 5th to 8th go to B Finals

For excellent profiles on most of the athletes check out the ICF website.


How to keep up with the action

Sky TV: live racing, check the listings for details

Prime TV: free viewing, possibly a little delayed

Nelo New Zealand Facebook Page: Of course we'll be up and watching – expect a blog on the results ASAP after the racing.

Canoe Racing NZ: CRNZ Facebook Page and CRNZ Website will have daily updates

Rio 2016 Offical App: excellent App - all the info, live updates etc

Rio Olympic Website: Full listings, live results etc

NZ Olympics App has video, news and listing on it as well

ICF Website: Great Olympic new, packed with info on the competitors




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