Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) athletes David Smith and Luke Morrison have won silver in the men’s K2 1000-metre event at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, on 15 August in Dartmouth, Canada.

Smith and Morrison paddled strongly to claim silver in just under 3 minutes, 16 seconds, finishing behind Emilio Merchan and Diego Cosgaya from Spain (3 minutes, 14.61 seconds). Carlos Montalvo and Reiner Torres from Cuba finished in third place with a time of 3 minutes, 16.07 seconds.

‘We went out a lot harder than we have before and got ourselves into a great position,’ Smith said.

‘We didn’t quite have enough in the tank at the end but, even though we couldn’t quite top the Spanish crew, a silver medal here is great.’

Australian Athlete Ken Wallace also performed well at the world championships, claiming bronze in the men’s K1 500-metre event in 1 minute, 38.23 seconds.

‘It’s great to have come here and to have won the bronze medal, even though it would have been nice to win,’ said Wallace.

The AIS athlete was hoping to repeat the performance that won him a gold medal in the same event at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

‘It was a close race today and could have gone any way so I am pretty happy overall,’ Wallace said.