London 2012 gold medallist Ed McKeever of Britain has not qualified for Rio 2016 ©British Canoeing

Britain’s Ed McKeever will not defend his Olympic K1 200 metres title at Rio 2016 as he could only manage fifth place in the final of his preferred discipline at the European Canoe Sprint Olympic Qualifier in Duisburg in Germany.

McKeever, who has struggled for form throughout the season and came into the event as one of the most high-profile names not to have secured a Rio 2016 berth, finished 0.97 seconds behind the winning time of 34.615sec posted by Spain’s Saúl Craviotto.

Craviotto will have the opportunity to avenge his defeat to the Briton at London 2012 during the Games in the Brazilian city after he was forced to settle for Olympic silver four years ago.

The two other spots in the K1 200m went the way of Hungary’s Bence Horvath and Italian Manfredi Rizza, second and third respectively.

“I’m obviously disappointed,” McKeever said. 

“The two most important races of this last four years - the Worlds last year and today - were probably my worst.

“But I guess that’s life.

“I can’t really explain why and I’m not going to dwell on it too much but it just didn’t happen.

“The end goal was the Rio Olympics which is off the table now so I will go away and reflect and see where I go from here.”

Sweden were in good form on the final day of the event and will be well represented at Rio 2016
Sweden were in good form on the final day of the event and will be well represented at Rio 2016 ©ICF

There was further disappointment for the British team in Duisburg as Angela Hannah and Lani Belcher, requiring victory to book a Rio 2016 slot, could only manage third in the K2 500m.

They were over a second adrift of Sweden’s Karin Johansson and Sofia Paldanius, who clocked 1min 45.176sec to cross the line in first place.

Their team-mate Linnea Stensils, along with Martina Kohlovátak from Slovakia, punched her Olympic ticket in the women’s K1 200m after Sabine Voltz, who had already qualified, won the race in 41.470.

Hungarian duo Tibor Ufnágel and Bence Dombvári powered to victory in the men’s K2 1,000m to guarantee their participation at Rio 2016 as their time of 3:13.223 proved too strong for the rest of the field to handle.

They claimed the only available quota in the event ahead of Oleh Kukharyk and Vitaliy Tsurkan of Turkey, who were two seconds back, while Gabriel Campo and Spain’s Rubén Millán took third place.

Alfonso Benavides, a European silver medallist, added to Spain's quotas by winning the men's C1 200m final in 39.245.

He will be joined on the start line at Rio 2016 by Georgian 
Zaza Nadiradze, who was second in 40.013.