Carrington continues Canoe Sprint World Cup dominance as Germans excel in Copenhagen

Lisa Carrington, pictured en route to victory at London 2012, won again on the World Cup circuit in Copenhagen ©Getty Images

Lisa Carrington completed a superb hatrick of International Canoe Federation (ICF) Sprint World Cup 500 metres races today in Copenhagen while, on a busy day of action in the sport, Slovenia, France and Britain all won gold medals at the European Slalom Championships in Markkleeberg, Germany.

Carrington, the 25-year-old New Zealander who won the London 2012 Olympic title over 200m before dominating over the longer distance this season, broke clear from a strong field right from the start before maintaining control to win in 1min 59.988sec.

Britain's Rachel Cawthorn produced a strong finish to snatch second place, while Zhou Yu of China took bronze.

Zhou later won a second medal after crossing the line runner-up over 1000m behind Hungarian winner Dóra Bodonyi, while there was silver for her compatriots Ren Wenjun and Ma Qing in the K2 500m final behind Olympic champions Franziska Weber and Tina Dietz of Germany.

It was German paddlers who enjoyed the best of the success in the Danish capital, with five-time world champion Max Hoff winning over 1000m and Sebastian Brendel doing likewise in the C1 1000, while Max Rendschmidt and Marcus Gross won the men's K2 1000m.

A quartet consisting of Martin Schubert, Lukas Reuschenbach, Kostja Stroinski and Kai Spenner then made it a golden five for Germany by beating Australia to the K4 1000m title.

But, in front of the watching International Olympic Committee member, Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, there was much for the home crowd to cheer as René Holten Poulson earned 1000m silver behind Hoff before Emma Jorgensen and Henriette Hansen took K2 500m bronze.

Reigning Olympic champion Sebastian Brendel was one of five German winners today in Copenhagen ©Getty Images

Meanwhile, on the first day of medals action in Markkleeberg, Slovenia's Benjamin Savsek improved upon European bronze and world silver in 2014 by winning the C1 title ahead of Sideris Tasiadis of Germany and Matej Benus of Slovakia.

There was a British 1-2 in the non-Olympic women's C1 event as Kimberley Woods won ahead of Mallory Franklin.

Nuria Vilarrubla of Spain took bronze.

Boris Neveu of France then took the showpiece K1 title to continue the superb form which saw him win the world title last year in a French clean sweep at Deep Water Lake, Maryland.

Beijing 2008 Olympic champion Alexander Grimm came close to a home gold by taking a German silver, while the final place on the podium was claimed by Andrej Malek of Slovakia.

Action will conclude in both Copenhagen and Markkleeberg tomorrow.