Day one of the ICF Sprint World Cup in Montemor-o-Velho, Portugal which ended with local competitors making A Finals alongside some of the more established names on the circuit.
 
Fresh from winning last week’s Racice World Cup K1M 1000m final, Czech Republic’s Josef Dostal laid down the fastest time in his heat this morning to qualify direct for the A final along with Australian Jacob Clear and Canada's Adam Van Koeverden.
 
But local fans did not have to wait too long before Portugal’s Fernando Pimenta, the winner of two events at this venue last summer,  joined the A finalists by winning his K1M 1000m semifinal this afternoon.
 
René Holten Poulsen (DEN) and Max Hoff (GER) were conspicuous by their absence in today’s K1M 1000m but elsewhere there were plenty of the sport’s bigger names.
 
Olympic Champion Lisa Carrington had been missing from last week’s Racice line up but the New Zealander was very much back in action today in K1W 200m, and in blistering form.
 
Carrington’s winning time of 42.616 seconds in her heat was almost two seconds up on second placed Joana Vasconcelos from Portugal.  But Vasconcelos later quailed for the A final after winning her semi.
 
Last week in Racice it was German boat of Tom Liebscher and Ronald Rauhe who took gold in the K2M 200m but today it was their compatriots Max Lemke and Felix Koenig who produced the heats’ fastest time of 33.252.

 
Spain’s José Gómez and Juan Oriyés won their heat in 34.756, and join the German’s in the A Finals.  António Conceição and Edgar Vieira added more interest in tomorrow’s K2M 200 A final after the Portugese pair were first in the semi final.
 
World Champions Kenny Wallace and Lachlan Tame had already booked their place in the K2 200m A final after finishing their heat in second when they went one better in this afternoon’s K2M 1000 heat.
 
The Australians, who had been beaten in last week’s final by a mere second, posted the fastest time of their heat, 3:26.156, to beat Spaniards Gabriel Campo and Rubén Millán in their heat.
 
Portugal’s Emanuel Silva and João Ribeiro will join them in the  K2M 1000m A final after finishing second in the semis.
 
In the men’s C1 1000m heats it was two Poles who fastest in their Vincent Slominski crossing the line in 4:06.616 in heat one, with Tomasz Kaczor winning the following race in 4:07.152