29 May 2016

NZ K4 crew through to World Cup final

8:25 am on 29 May 2016

New Zealand's Olympic-bound women's K4 kayakers continued to shine on the World Cup circuit in Europe overnight.

New Zealand kayakers Aimee Fisher and Jaimee Lovett.

New Zealand kayakers Aimee Fisher and Jaimee Lovett. Photo: Canoe NZ

Jaimee Lovett and Aimee Fisher took gold in the non-Olympic K2 200m final, before combining with Caitlin Ryan and Kayla Imrie for another impressive K4 500m outing at Racice in the Czech Republic.

That's the event they'll be specialising in at the Rio Games and they showed they remain on track, finishing second in their heat to qualify directly for tonight's final.

The Kiwi quartet were 1.866secs behind the strong Ukrainian team - winners of the gold at last week's World Cup 1 in Germany - finishing in 1min 37.834secs, clear of the German crew.

Lovett and Fisher, meanwhile, rocketed out to a fast start in the K2 200m final, pulling inexorably away to win in.

They were comfortably clear of China's Wenjun Ren and Qing Ma, with Argentina's Sabrina Ines Ameghino and Maria Magdelena Garro third.

This weekend is the K4 crew's last major outing before Rio, electing to miss next week's World Cup 3 in Portugal.

-RNZ