New Zealand's canoe sprint team has gotten off to a great start in today's do-or-die Tokyo Olympics action Lisa Carrington as well as Max Brown and Kurtis Imrie booking spots in their respective finals.
Caitlin Regal was the first New Zealand boat up at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo this afternoon, racing in the first of four semi-finals for the women's K1 500m.
The pressure was on Regal despite a strong performance yesterday, with only the top two from each semi-final would make this afternoon's race for the gold medal.
Regal was comfortably second through the first 250m but a strong finish from Belgium's Hermien Peters saw the Kiwi finish third by 0.6 seconds. Hungary's Tamara Csipes won the semi-final.
Carrington was the next Kiwi in the water, racing in the fourth semi-final of the same event and she quickly showed her blistering pace out of the block to take a 1.27 second lead at the 250m mark over the field.
She held that lead with ease for the final 250m to book her spot in the final where she will chase her third medal at this year's Olympics after winning two golds in the K1 200m and K2 500m - alongside Regal - events earlier this week.
Brown and Imrie then took the water straight after in their K2 1000m semi-final where the top four boats made this afternoon's final.
While the Kiwi duo were fourth at the 500m mark, they went up two gears over the second half of the race, powering through the field to take second place behind Australia.
The Kiwis and Australians will be joined by China and the Czech Republic in the final with the latter two boats finishing third and fourth respectively in the first semi-final.
Carrington will be the first New Zealand canoe sprinter to chase gold later today when she appears in the K1 500m final at 3:29pm NZT before Imrie and Brown return at 3:55pm for their shot at gold.
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