Defending Olympic champion Liam Heath continued his Tokyo preparations in perfect fashion with K1 200m gold at the Canoe Sprint World Cup in Szeged, Hungary.
The Rio gold medallist returned to action for the first time since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic with victory at the sprint and paracanoe national selection event last month and followed that up with another success on the continent.
Far from the dominant win achieved in Nottingham though, Heath was made to work hard here – winning a nail-biting contest by just three one hundredths of a second ahead of home favourite and former K2 200m world champion Sandor Totka.
“I haven’t got a clue what happened in there, it was incredibly close,” Heath said.
“I just put my head down and pushed as hard as I could into the headwind and kept strong to the finish, it never gets easier.
“It’s been great to get out and race again, it’s dusted off the cobwebs really and it’s been good to see where everyone is, what tactics they’re employing and to get the first World Cup under my belt.”
Totka started strongly and a hard-fought race was always close, but Heath found an extra gear in the late stages to take the line just ahead.
Victory was achieved in a time of 35.68 seconds, while Italy’s Manfredi Rizza completed the podium, himself just six one hundredths behind the winner.
Meanwhile, Deborah Kerr built on a fantastic week with bronze in the women’s K1 200m A final with a time of 41.81s.
The medal comes after Kerr won the quota spot in the women’s K1 200m at Tokyo with victory on Thursday.
A time of 43.11s then was enough for Kerr to head off the challenge of Italian Francesca Genzo.
Sportsbeat 2021