New Zealand had an encouraging morning at the world canoeing championships in Duisburg, Germany.
Olympic champion Lisa Carrington was the second fastest qualifier into the semifinals early tomorrow in the K1 500m.
Carrington, who won gold in the K1 200m sprint event in London last year and has been dominant in the longer distance at this year's World Cup meets in Europe, won her heat in 1min 50.367s, heading home Slovenian Spela Ponomarenko-Janic, who clocked 1:51.02.
The only paddler quicker than Carrington was German Katrin Wagner-Augustin, who crossed in 1:49.635 in winning the opening heat.
Former world champion Ben Fouhy, troubled by a brief bout of illness in the leadup, is through to his semifinals of the K1 1000m, but only finished seventh in his heat. Fouhy recorded 3:43.120, well behind heat winner Dmitri Ekimov of Russia, who put up 3:33.979.
K2 500m pair Teneale Hatton and Rachel Dodwell finished third in their heat in 1:45.924, easily good enough for the semifinals.
