Mark de Jonge wins gold at canoe sprint worlds

Canadian Mark de Jonge won gold in the K1 200-metre event at the ICF canoe sprint world championships on Sunday to defend his 2014 title.

De Jonge, an Olympic bronze medallist from Halifax, finished in 34.802 seconds.

Maxime Baumont of France placed second in 34.993 while Sweden's Petter Menning was third in 35.002.

"It feels pretty good because it is so close between the top three of us here the entire season, so lining up next to them was a little daunting," de Jonge said. "I tried to focus on what I had to do, and right off the start I had a bit of a lead so I was able to just keep pretty cool for the race.

"The plan was to kill it the first 50 (metres) because I know I'm pretty good after that."

De Jonge made a statement in his semifinal on Saturday, posting the fastest overall time to take top spot.

He holds the world's fastest time for the event at 33.961 seconds.

Sunday's result also qualifies Canada a quota spot in the K1 200 event for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. De Jonge will still have to qualify for the Canadian team next year.

Eight-time World Champion Laurence Vincent-Lapointe of Trois-Rivieres, Que., finished just off the podium in fourth place in the women's C1 200.

In the men's C2 1,000, Ben Russell of Dartmouth, N.S., and Gabriel Beauchesne-Sevigny of Trois-Rivieres finished ninth in the final. Canada will have an additional opportunity to earn a quota in the event next May at the Pan American canoe sprint championship and continental Olympic qualifier in Georgia.

In non-Olympic events, Emilie Fournel of Montreal won bronze medal in the women's K1 5,000 long distance race. She was 7.53 seconds off the winner, Maryna Litvinchuk from Belerus, and 3.57 seconds off of silver medalist Lani Belcher of Great Britain.

Genevieve Orton of Lake Echo, N.S., and Una Lounder of Dartmouth finished eighth in the final of the women's K2 200.