The three-time Olympic canoe champion Sebastian Brendel suffered a small setback on the way to the targeted World Championships medal in Halifax, Canada.
Together with Tim Hecker, with whom he had won Olympic bronze in Tokyo, Brendel missed the direct entry into the final in the canoe doubles (C2) over 500 m as second in the heat and is now challenged in the semi-finals.
Brendel and Hecker were beaten by the Polish boat on Wednesday, 1.24 seconds back. In hot Halifax, the twelve-time world champion Brendel puts his focus fully on the soon-to-be-Olympic 500 m, he starts in the canoe doubles over his former parade discipline 1000 m as well as in the canoe one over 5000 m and in the 500 m C2 together with Sophie Cook.
The German men in the kayak four (K4), on the other hand, stormed straight into the final. The Olympic champion with Max Rendschmidt, Tom Liebscher, Jacob Schopf and Max Lemke prevailed in the heat just ahead of Slovakia (+0.04 seconds). The gold boat from Tokyo was only changed in one position, Schopf replacing the retired Ronald Rauhe.
Second place in the heats was enough for the newly formed K4 of the women around Lena Roehlings, Carlonie Arft, Pauline Jagsch and Katharina Diederichs for a direct place in the final. Lisa Jahn and Koch also avoided the semi-finals in the canoe duo by finishing third in the heats and are reaching for a medal on Saturday.