The canoeing world was sent into shock on Monday when 11-time World Champion Laurence Vincent-Lapointe of Canada was suspended for a doping positive from a test in July. That takes her out of this week’s ICF World Sprint Championships in Szeged (HUN), where she would have been defending her 2018 victories in the C-1 200 m, C-1 5,000 m and the C-2 500 m with Katie Vincent.
Now, those events are wide open; Olesia Romasenko (RUS) won silver in the C-1 200 m race in 2018 and Annika Loske was runner-up in the C-1 5,000 m final. Hungary’s Virag Balla and Kincso Takacs won silver in the 2018 C-2 500 m.
All of that will focus even more attention on New Zealand superstar Lisa Carrington, who has dominated the women’s K-1 200 m and 500 m races for almost a decade:
● K-1 200 m: World Champion in 2011-13-14-15-17-18; Olympic Champion in 2012-16
● K-1 500 m: World Champion in 2015-17; silver medalist in 2018; Olympic bronze 2016
Carrington has also been active in the K-2 500 m and K-4 500 m races, so she could have a big week.
Among the men, Germany’s Sebastian Brendel will be defending the C-1 1,000 m and C-1 5,000 m titles from 2018. He now owns 10 World Championships golds and three Olympic golds from 2012-18:
● C-1 1,000 m: World Champion in 2014-15-17-18; Olympic Champion in 2012-16
● C-1 5,000 m: World Champion in 2013-14-15-17-18
He has also been part of winning c-2 1,000 m (Rio 2016) and C-4 1,000 m (2017 Worlds) teams, so look out for him there too.
In Kayak racing, Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta won the K-1 1,000 m and K-1 5,000 m races in 2018 and is back for more.
Heats start on Wednesday; the finals schedule and defending champions:
● Friday/23 August:
C-2 200 m Men ~ Hleb Saladukha/Dzianis Makhlai (BLR)
C-2 500 m Men ~ Isaquias Queiroz/Erlon Silva (BRA)
K-1 500 m Men ~ Josef Dostal (CZE)
K-4 1,000 m Men ~ Germany
C-1 500 m Women ~ Kseniia Kurach (RUS)
K-2 200 m Women ~ Franziska Weber/Tina Dietze (GER)
K-2 1,000 m Women ~ Tamara Csipes/Erika Medveczky (HUN)
● Saturday/24 August:
C-1 500 m Men ~ Isaquias Queiroz (BRA)
C-2 1,000 m Men (OG) ~ Yul Oeltze/Peter Kretschmer (GER)
K-1 200 m Men (OG) ~ Carlos Garotte (ESP)
K-1 1,000 m Men (OG) ~ Fernando Pimenta (POR)
K-2 500 m Men ~ Artem Kuzakhmetov/Vladislav Blintsov (RUS)
C-1 200 m Women (OG) ~ Laurence Vincent-Lapointe (CAN)
K-1 200 m Women (OG) ~ Lisa Carrington (NZL)
K-1 1,000 m Women ~ Dora Bodonyi (HUN)
K-2 500 m Women (OG) ~ Anna Karasz/Danita Kozak (HUN)
● Sunday/25 August:
C-1 200 m Men ~ Artsem Kozyr (BLR)
C-1 1,000 m Men (OG) ~ Sebastian Brendel (GER)
C-1 5,000 m Men ~ Sebastian Brendel (GER)
C-4 500 m Men ~ Russia
K-1 5,000 m Men ~ Fernando Pimenta (POR)
K-2 200 m Men ~ Mark Balaska/Balazs Birkas (HUN)
K-2 1,000 m Men (OG) ~ Max Hoff/Marcus Gross (CAN)
K-4 500 m Men (OG) ~ Germany
C-1 5,000 m Women ~ Laurence Vincent-Lapointe (CAN)
C-2 200 m Women ~ Alena Nazdrova/Kamila Bobr (BLR)
C-2 500 m Women (OG) ~ Laurence Vincent-Lapointe/Katie Vincent (CAN)
K-1 500 m Women (OG) ~ Danuta Kozak (HUN)
K-1 5,000 m Women ~ Lizzie Broughton (GBR)
K-4 500 m Women (OG) ~ Hungary
The ICF has excellent coverage on its Web site; results can be found here.
