Australia made a strong start to Thursday's opening day of able-bodied racing at the Canoe World Championships in Moscow, with two strong heat wins and a third boat progressing easily to the semi-finals.
Murray Stewart, a member of Australia's gold medal-winning K4 crew, breezed through his semi-final of the K1 1000, while Beijing gold medallist Ken Wallace and new partner Lachlan Tame were convincing winners of their K2 1000 heat.
The women's K4 500 crew of Cat McArthur, Alyce Burnett, Jaime Roberts and Bernadette Wallace finished fourth in their heat to progress to the semis.
Stewart has said he wants to use these world championships to prove to himself and others that he can compete in two big events at a major International. He competed in the K1 1000 and the K4 1000 at the London Olympics and, while the K4 won gold, Stewart finished well below his best in the K1.
He later revealed he had been battling illness at the time.
Australian Canoeing officials are excited about the long-term prospects of Wallace and Tame in the K2 1000.
Tame is Australia's premier paddler over shorter distances, while Wallace is one of the best finishers in world canoeing. Those skills were on display in Thursday morning's heat, when they led early, eased off in the middle stages of the race, but then finished over the top of the opposition to post a comfortable win.
The gold medal races in the men's K1 1000 and K2 1000 will be raced on Saturday afternoon (AEST).
On Wednesday, Australia's Curtis McGrath, the soldier who lost both legs while serving in Afghanistan, won his first World Para Canoe title in Moscow in a world record time.
Gold Coast-based McGrath was pushed all the way in the final by Britain's Jonathan Young, eventually crossing the line in 48.596sec - beating his previous PB, set in the morning heat, by more than a second.
"I was definitely way more nervous," McGrath said.
"I had a little cheeky look and I could see he (Young) was really close, so luckily it went my way."
It's been an incredible introduction for McGrath to the sport of canoeing. He only began paddling in December last year, but quickly proved to be a potential world beater.
This month marks the second anniversary of McGrath's life-changing incident, when he stepped on a bomb in Afghanistan and had both his legs blown off.
His win confirms the 25-year-old's favouritism for gold at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, the first time para canoe will be at the Games.
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