London, England – The canoe sprint event held its final heats and semifinals of the London Games on Thursday, setting up some debut finals in 200-meter racing for the following day.
Among those moving on to the final of the men's 200m single kayak include semifinal winners Mark de Jonge of Canada and Great Britain's Ed McKeever, a two-time world cup winner this year. German Ronald Rauhe, winner of 13 previous world titles and a 2009 world championship, also advanced.
In the men's 200m single canoe, Russian Ivan Shtyl', Lithuania's Jevgenij Shuklin and Yuri Cheban of the Ukraine all advanced to the final as semifinal winners. Those also moving on include German Sebastian Brendel, Spain's Alfonso Benavidez Lopes de Ayala and Canada's Jason McCoombs.
In the Olympic debut of women's 200m single kayak, Lisa Carrington of New Zealand had the fastest time in any of the three semifinals at 40.258 seconds.
Russia's Natalia Lobova and Hungary's Natasa Douchev-Janics also won their respective races to highlight those advancing to Friday's final.
In the men's 200m double kayak, Russian's Yury Postrigay and Alexander Dyachenko had the fastest time of the day, winning their semifinal at 32.051 seconds. Duos from Belarus, Great Britain and Canada are also among those set to race in Friday's final.
The 200m men's races are replacing 500m events from previous games, while women's 200m kayak is making its Olympic debut.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.