Sunny skies shined down on Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon on a beautiful 74 degree Olympic Day 12.
Four different classes raced in heats and semifinals, with athletes in these classes vying for a spot in the Final A (medal race) race on Thursday.
New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington and Brazil’s Isaquias Queiroz both head in to these races with Olympic hardware from Tuesday’s final.
Carrington won gold in the women’s K1 200-meter and Queiroz won silver in the men’s C2 1000m.
Men’s Kayak Double 1000m
An 8 a.m. ET start kicked off the day’s races with two heats in the men’s K2 1000m division. Here, the top finisher of each heat advances automatically to Final A. The rest will face off in the semifinal where the top three advance to Final A.
Max Rendschmidt and Marcus Gross of Germany are the defending world champions and automatically advanced to Final A after a 3 minute 19.258 seconds finish. Rendschmidt and Gross will also compete in the men’s K4 1000m sprint on Friday and Saturday.
Serbia’s Marko Tomicevic and Milenko Zoric, who are medal contenders also advanced automatically to Final A.
Australia’s Ken Wallace and Lachlan Tame, who finished second at the last two world championships, won their semifinal and will compete in Final A on Thursday.
Lastly, Slovakia’s Erik Vlcek and Juraj Tarr also advance to Final A from their semifinal. They are also medal contenders that can give Germany a run for their money.
Men’s Canoe Single 200m
It will be a different kind of pace for Isaquias Queiroz on Wednesday.
The host nation’s Sportsperson of the Year in 2015 won silver in the C1 1000m event on Tuesday.
Queiroz advances to Final A on Thursday after winning the semifinal in an exciting come-from-behind victory.
Gold medal favorite, China’s Li Qiang, who competed in his third Olympics on Wednesday, missed out on Final A by .28 seconds and will not compete for an Olympic medal.
Azerbaijan’s Valentin Demyanenko has had a fair amount of success in the past and continues to be successful. He advances to Final A from his semifinal performance.
Men’s Kayak Double 200m
Similar to the men’s K2 1000m race, the top finisher of each of the two heats advances automatically to Final A. The remaining athletes race in the semifinal where the top three advance to Final A.
The field is wide-open in the K2 200m.
Germany, Serbia, Hungary, France, and Great Britain all feel that they have the fastest paddlers in the division.
Wednesday’s heats and semifinal races showed just that. All of these nations advanced to Final A with Spain, Lithuania and Canada also joining them in Thursday’s final.
Women’s Kayak Single 500m
Lisa Carrington of New Zealand already has a gold medal from these Games. She won it on Tuesday in the K1 200m.
She’s back for more in the 500m, and as the defending world champion, she proved that she has what it takes to defend that title as well. She advanced to Final A after finishing top two in her semifinal.
The defending Olympic champion, Hungary’s Danuta Kozak, advanced to Final A and squares off with Carrington as her top challenger on Thursday.
Team USA only qualified one canoe/kayak sprinter and her name is Maggie Hogan. After a disappointing finish in the women’s K1 200m on Monday, the same results occurred on Wednesday and the 37-year-old failed to advance to the semifinal.