The biggest names in international canoe sprint showed they mean business on the opening day of the Olympic competition at the Sea Forest Waterway on Monday.

Lisa Carrington’s bid to become the first athlete to win four canoe sprint medals at a single Olympics got off to a flying start, with the New Zealander breezing through the heats of the women’s K1 200, and then teaming up with Caitlin Regal to win their K2 500 heat.

The opening two days of competition will be the toughest for the 32-year-old. On Tuesday she will need to race four times, but she is confident she is ready.

“We have a bit of a plan, and it’s nice to have executed that today, and obviously we have to start again tomorrow so we have some more work to do,” Carrington said.

“I’m excited. Some people only get out on the water once, I’m going to go out there for four different events, so I see it as a great privilege to be able to get out there for four different events.”

Germany’s Sebastian Brendel showed he is on track to defend the C2 1000 gold he won in Rio, teaming up with new partner Tim Hecker to comfortably win their heat by more than two seconds.

The 33-year-old is also aiming for a third consecutive Olympic gold in the C1 1000, but is looking forward to seeing what he and Hecker can do on Tuesday.

“It was a good first race for us, we found a good rhythm and now we can recover a bit for tomorrow,” Brendel said.

“We’ve been paddling now one and a half years together, we have had some good races before and we hope we can do the same here.”

Five-time Olympic champion Danuta Kozak also has a new partner to defend the K2 500 title she won in Rio. The Hungarian is paddling alongside Dora Bodonyi, the pair easily winning their heat to move straight into the semi-finals.

Kozak is also contesting the K1 500 and the K4 500, but said she is not feeling extra pressure.

“I don’t have any more excitement, I just want to focus on the K2 and hope we can do a good race,” Kozak said.”

The men’s K1 1000 is living up to its pre-Games billing as one of the events of the competition. The three International Canoe Federation world champions all won their heats comfortably, and the exciting young stars, Germany’s Jacob Schopf and Hungary’s Adam Varga, looked impressive.

2018 world champion Fernando Pimenta of Portugal is predicting an exciting race.

“I think it will be a great show tomorrow,” Pimenta said.

“There are younger athletes, there are older athletes, I hope to be part of the most beautiful show for the sports lover.”

Four gold medals will be decided on Tuesday – the men’s K1 1000 and C2 1000, and the women’s K1 200 and K2 500.

Pics by Bence Vekassy