Canoeing at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Women's K-4 500 metres

The women's K-4 500 metres sprint canoeing event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 6 and 7 August 2021 at the Sea Forest Waterway.[1] 48 canoeists (12 boats of 4) from 10 nations competed.[2]

Women's K-4 500 metres
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Canoeing pictogram
VenueSea Forest Waterway
Dates6 August 2021 (heats)
7 August 2021 (semifinal & final)
Competitors48 (12 boats) from 12 nations
Winning time1:35.463
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Danuta Kozák
Tamara Csipes
Anna Kárász
Dóra Bodonyi
 Hungary
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Marharyta Makhneva
Nadzeya Papok
Volha Khudzenka
Maryna Litvinchuk
 Belarus
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Karolina Naja
Anna Puławska
Justyna Iskrzycka
Helena Wiśniewska
 Poland
← 2016
2024 →

Background edit

This was the 10th appearance of the event, having appeared at every Summer Olympics since 1984.

The reigning World Champions were Dóra Bodonyi, Erika Medveczky, Tamara Csipes, and Alida Dóra Gazsó of Hungary. The 2016 Olympic champions were also from Hungary: Gabriella Szabó, Danuta Kozák, Csipes, and Krisztina Fazekas.

Qualification edit

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could qualify one place in the event. A total of 10 qualification places were available, all awarded through the 2019 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships. There were required to be boats from 4 continents qualified. Thus, the top 7 at the World Championships were guaranteed to qualify, with the 8th, 9th, and 10th spots potentially being reserved for continental qualifiers. Additional places resulted from reallocation of quota spots when individual canoeists were in multiple classes of qualifying boats at the World Championships (10 spots were available, allowing the ROC and Denmark boats to qualify, but were not sufficient to qualify Great Britain).

Qualifying places were awarded to the NOC, not to the individual canoeist who earned the place.[2]

The World Championships places were allocated as follows:[3]

Rank Kayaker Nation Qualification Selected competitors
1 Dóra Bodonyi
Erika Medveczky
Tamara Csipes
Alida Dóra Gazsó
  Hungary Quota #1 (Continent #1)
2 Maryna Litvinchuk
Volha Khudzenka
Nadzeya Liapeshka
Marharyta Makhneva
  Belarus Quota #2
3 Karolina Naja
Anna Puławska
Katarzyna Kołodziejczyk
Helena Wiśniewska
  Poland Quota #3
4 Lisa Carrington
Aimee Fisher
Caitlin Regal
Kayla Imrie
  New Zealand Quota #4 (Continent #2)
5 Sarah Guyot
Léa Jamelot
Sarah Troël
Manon Hostens
  France Quota #5
6 Tina Dietze
Franziska John
Sabrina Hering-Pradler
Caroline Arft
  Germany Quota #6
7 Alyce Burnett
Jo Brigden-Jones
Jaime Roberts
Alyssa Bull
  Australia Quota #7
8 Inna Hryshchun
Mariia Kichasova-Skoryk
Mariya Povkh
Anastasiia Todorova
  Ukraine Quota #8
9 Anastasia Panchenko
Kira Stepanova
Kristina Kovnir
Anastasiia Dolgova
  ROC 4 reallocated places
10 Ma Qing
Huang Jieyi
Zhou Yu
Li Dongyin
  China Quota #9 (Continent #3)
11 Emma Jørgensen
Julie Funch
Pernille Knudsen
Line Langelund
  Denmark 3 reallocated places
12 Michelle Russell
Courtney Stott
Lisa Bissonnette
Natalie Davison
  Canada Quota #10 (Continent #4)
13 Angela Hannah
Hannah Brown
Deborah Kerr
Emily Lewis
  Great Britain Not qualified; 3 of 4 places available

Competition format edit

Sprint canoeing uses a four-round format for events with 12 boats, with heats, quarterfinals semifinals, and finals. The specifics of the progression format depend on the number of boats ultimately entered.[4]

  • Heats: 2 heats of 6 boats each. The top 2 in each heat (4 boats total) advance directly to the semifinals. The remaining 8 boats compete in the quarterfinal.
  • Quarterfinal: 1 heat of 8 boats. The top 6 advance to the semifinals. The remaining 2 boats compete in Final B, out of medal contention.
  • Semifinals: 2 heats of 5 boats each. The top 4 in each heat (8 boats total) advance to Final A; the remaining 2 boats compete in Final B, out of medal contention.
  • Final: 2 heats. Final A has the top 8 boats, awarding the medals and 4th through 8th place. Final B has the remaining 4 boats, ranking them 9th through 12th.

The course is a flatwater course 9 metres wide. The name of the event describes the particular format within sprint canoeing. The "K" format means a kayak, with the canoeist sitting, using a double-bladed paddle to paddle, and steering with a foot-operated rudder (as opposed to a canoe, with a kneeling canoeist, single-bladed paddle, and no rudder). The "4" is the number of canoeists in each boat. The "500 metres" is the distance of each race.[5]

Schedule edit

The event was held over two consecutive days, with two rounds per day. All sessions started at 9:30 a.m. local time, though there are multiple events with races in each session.[1]

Legend
H Heats ¼ Quarterfinals ½ Semifinals F Final
Sprint
Event↓/Date → Mon 2 Tue 3 Wed 4 Thu 5 Fri 6 Sat 7
Women's K-4 500 m H ½ F

Canoers per team edit

Number Rowers Nation
1 Jaime Roberts - Jo Brigden-Jones - Shannon Reynolds - Catherine McArthur   Australia
2 Marharyta Makhneva - Nadzeya Papok - Volha Khudzenka - Maryna Litvinchuk   Belarus
3 Andréanne Langlois - Michelle Russell - Alanna Bray-Lougheed - Madeline Schmidt   Canada
4 Li Dongyin - Zhou Yu - Ma Qing - Wang Nan   China
5 Emma Jørgensen - Julie Funch - Sara Milthers - Bolette Nyvang Iversen   Denmark
6 Manon Hostens - Vanina Paoletti - Sarah Guyot - Léa Jamelot   France
7 Sabrina Hering-Pradler - Melanie Gebhardt - Jule Hake - Tina Dietze   Germany
8 Danuta Kozák - Tamara Csipes - Anna Kárász - Dóra Bodonyi   Hungary
9 Lisa Carrington - Alicia Hoskin - Caitlin Regal - Teneale Hatton   New Zealand
10 Karolina Naja - Anna Puławska - Justyna Iskrzycka - Helena Wiśniewska   Poland
11 Natalia Podolskaya - Anastasiia Dolgova - Kira Stepanova - Svetlana Chernigovskaya   ROC
12 Mariia Kichasova-Skoryk - Liudmyla Kuklinovska - Anastasiia Todorova - Mariya Povkh   Ukraine

Results edit

Heats edit

Progression System: 1st-2nd to SF, rest to QF.

Quarterfinal edit

Progression System: 1st-6th to SF, rest to Final B.

Rank Lane Country Time Notes
1 5   Belarus 1:35.534 SF
2 4   China 1:36.379 SF
3 1   Ukraine 1:36.948 SF
4 7   France 1:37.138 SF
5 6   Australia 1:37.601 SF
6 2   Denmark 1:37.682 SF
7 8   ROC 1:38.372 FB
8 3   Canada 1:38.537 FB

Semifinals edit

Progression System: 1st-4th to Final A, rest to Final B.

Finals edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Canoe Sprint Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 3 July 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b "Qualification System – Games of the XXXI Olympiad – Canoe Sprint" (PDF). International Canoe Federation. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  3. ^ Canoe Sprint Quota Allocation
  4. ^ "Canoe Sprint Progression System" (PDF). ICF. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  5. ^ "Canoe Sprint". IOC. Archived from the original on 3 July 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2021.