New Zealand take first women's canoe gold

DORNEY, England - New Zealand's Lisa Carrington stormed through the field to take victory in the inaugural K1 200 on Dorney Lake on Saturday to add to her world championship title and give her country its first women's Olympic gold medal in sprint canoeing.

The result consigned Hungarian great Natasa Douchev-Janics to a bronze medal after she won a silver earlier in the week. She had been in the hunt for her fourth Olympic gold medal overall.

The explosive sprint over 200 metres is new to the Olympic programme and designed to increase interest in the sport, with the canoeists taking three strokes per second in an explosive fight for the line.  

Ukraine's Inna Osypenko-Radomska, Olympic champion from 2008 over the 500-metre distance and silver medallist from earlier this week, took another silver.