Olympics 2020: Romania's Chirila, Mihalachi progress to men's canoe doubles 1,000m semis

Romanians Catalin Chirila and Victor Mihalachi on Monday advanced to the semifinals of the men's canoe doubles 1,000m at the Tokyo Olympic Games, after finishing third in the first quarterfinal. The two Romanians clocked in at 3:51.565, behind Brazil (3:48.611) and Ukraine (3:49.356). The first three crews advanced to the semifinals. Chirila and Mihalachi were initially ranked 5th in heat two (4:00.459), and they went on the progress to the quarterfinals. Chirila and Mihalachi will race in the first semi-final on Tuesday, with the best four crews advancing to the final scheduled on August 3. They are bronze medallists at this year at the European Championships in Poznan, but Mihalachi, 32, is also a two-time world champion - in 2010 and 2014. In the kayak and canoe events, Romania has an 34 Olympic medal tally, of which 10 gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze. The last gold was won at C2-1,000 m by Florin Popescu, the current coach of the Olympic canoe team, and Mitica Pricop, bronze medallist in the 500 m event. The last time Romanian kayakers and canoeists made it to the Olympic medal podium was 21 years ago. AGERPRES (AS-author: Mihai Tenea, editor: Mihai Dragomir; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Cristina Zaharia)