Titouan Castryck of France and Gabriela Satkova of Czechia qualified for the men’s kayak and women’s canoe semi-final, respectively, with the best timings today.

Here are some quotes from day four of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

Titoouan Castryck (France)

“It is really nice to put down two clean runs. I do take inspiration from  NicloasGestin but it’s a different discipline. Yesterday it was a really nice moment to cheer on him and have him on the podium. He won but it is not done for us. Most of the partd will be way more difficult. I don’t really think about it for the moment. Of course it helps that we are training here for a long time. It makes a lot of difference. But other guys have been practiing here a lot. It is really good to race at home an it makes a big differrnce.”  

Joseph Clarke (Great Britain) 

“Relief. Probably the biggest word. Obviously, I know I'm fully capable of making the semifinal, but knowing you can and doing it are two different things, especially with the pressure from the crowd, the media, yourself. So that's the most important thing and that's where I will get our best results and best performances. If you see the start line, I was smiling, and I was just soaking it in and the crowd was firing me up.”

Finn Butcher (New Zealand)

“It was awesome to finally get out. I've been waiting around for a few days watching the other guys and the first one was pretty good, pretty solid, basically what we plan to do. I tried a few different things in the second run but couldn't pull that one together, but I'm pretty stoked.”

Timothy Anderson (Australia)

“The first one is definitely getting the nerves out of the way. I was very stiff on the water, a bit more nervous. Not quite committing fully to all the moves. On that second round, I really let myself feel the water and paddle as I like to paddle. I got what I wanted. Top five at the moment is where I want to be, and that was the goal for today.”

Gabriela Satkova (Czechia)

“It's absolutely amazing. I was surprised to hear so many people cheering. It’s the first time in my life I have heard so many people and it was really electric. I enjoyed it so much and I can’t wait for the semi-final to hear it again.”

Jessica Fox (Australia)

“Feeling good. In the heats, I am getting that feel back after the kayak. I got on the water yesterday to blow out the cobwebs and flush out the arms a little bit. I felt really good out there today, second place was what I needed to do so job done.”

Klaudia Zwolinska (Poland)

“It’s super nice but now it is time to focus on C1. It’s nice easy because there were a lot of emotions with the medal position in the K1. Now it’s time to refocus and try to get the feeling in C1. It was really hard for me to celebrate because I spent hours and hours on the doping control station. It was super long. I support clean sport so it is good. It was really tiring and then I couldn’t sleep so yesterday was very hard as I was tired whereas now I feel much better. I’m in the top 10 in C1 after qualies so I’m happy.”

Ana Satila (Brazil)

“Today was a hard day. I was feeling pretty tired, my muscles were a bit sore from the day of racing but I try to enjoy and be positive and focus on my run. The first one wasn’t so good. So, I tried to improve for the second one. I am happy because finally I got a very good position.”

Lena Teunissen (Netherlands)

“I just finished my second run and I’m super happy with how it went. In the first run, I wasn’t really satisfied as I made three touches and I knew I could improve my run and also the touches so I’m super happy that I did a good run now and I think I’m sixth or seventh at the moment.”