Canada’s Vincent, MacKenzie win Olympic canoe bronze
Canada’s strong run on Olympic water continued Friday when Katie Vincent and Sloan MacKenzie captured bronze in a thrilling women’s canoe double 500-metre race.
The Canadians finished just .06 seconds behind Ukraine’s Liudmyla Luzan and Anastasiia Rybachok for silver.
China’s Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya easily won gold in an Olympic-record time of one minute, 52.81 seconds — 1.49 seconds ahead of Ukraine.
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It is the 22nd medal for Canada at Paris 2024 and is the 11th in an event featuring water.
The Chinese boat has dominated the event, taking Olympic gold in Tokyo three years ago before winning two world championships in a row.
Vincent, from Mississauga, Ont., and MacKenzie, from Windsor Junction, N.S., won their semifinal earlier Friday in 1:55.34 to earn a spot in the final.
The Canadians set a then-Olympic record in the heats on Tuesday, finishing in 1:54.16. The Chinese boat broke that record in the semifinals (1:53.73).
Vincent also will compete for a medal in the C-1 200 metres on Saturday
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Vincent and MacKenzie qualified for the Olympics by winning bronze at the 2023 world championships. They went on to win gold at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games and silver at the first World Cup of 2024.
Vincent set the world-record time in 2018 with then-teammate Laurence Vincent Lapointe, securing a time of 1:51.42.
Vincent Lapointe retired after winning a bronze medal with Vincent at the Tokyo Olympics.
