Paris, Aug 10 (IANS): New Zealand's Lisa Carrington grabbed her third gold medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics by winning the women's kayak single 500 metres title, while Josef Dostal and Katie Vincent emerged victorious in their respective events at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium here on Saturday.
After clinching gold medals in the women’s kayak fours 500m on August 8 and doubles 500m races on Friday, Lisa completed a stunning clean sweep of gold medals in her events with Saturday’s race, winning with an Olympic record timing of 1:47.36.
It’s also her eighth Olympic gold medal overall and Lisa is now tied with eight-time Olympic champion Birgit Fischer as the most decorated canoe athlete ever. Tamara Csipes of Hungary secured the silver, while Denmark's Emma Aastrand Orgensen claimed the bronze medal.
“It’s amazing. The goal is always to win, but it’s more than the win for us. As a team, it’s about doing amazing things. It’s more than medals, the people behind it are everything. It’s nice to remember why I do it, and I was just trying to do that today," said Lisa to Olympics.com at the end of the race.
In the men's kayak single 1000m race, Czech Republic’s Dostal pulled off an incredible race to win the gold medal with a timing of 3:24.07. He finally gets to have an Olympic gold medal in his cupboard after clinching one silver and three bronze medals in his previous three outings at the mega event.
Hungary's Adam Varga won the silver medal, while his country-mate Balint Kopasz, the gold medallist in the Tokyo Olympics, took the bronze medal. Dostal overtook Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta after the halfway stage of the race and never looked back, maintaining his lead over Varga and Kopasz until the very end to take home the gold medal.
Meanwhile, in the women’s canoe single 200m race, Canada’s Katie got her moment of glory by beating Tokyo Olympics champion USA’s Nevin Harrison in a photo finish. It also meant Canada got its first Olympic gold medal in any women's canoe event.
Katie clocked a timing of 44.12 to set a new world best time to finish ahead of Nevin by just one-hundredths of a second, while Cuba’s Yarisleidis Cirilo Duboys won the bronze medal. The gold medal for Katie comes after she clinched the bronze medal alongside Sloan MacKenzie in the women’s canoe doubles 500m.