Favourites into K1 final

They also face each other in the K1 1000 final on Friday.

Larsen won the first semi-final in strong style and van Koeverden won the third, 0.124 of a second ahead of Baggaley. "Every day my performance is better," van Koeverden said. "It was a fast and tough race, with very good opponents such as Nathan Baggaley."

Britain's Ian Wynne won the second semi and believes the final is very open:"It's going to be a very hard minute and 36 seconds," he told Reuters. "Any one of the nine guys in the final can finish with a medal. There are probably four or five real strong favourites and hopefully I'm in that crowd."

In the women's K1 500, Italy's German-born Olympic champion Josefa Idem won with clear water over her opposition to qualify for Saturday's final.

Idem became an Italian citizen in 1992 after moving there in 1988 and is the first Italian to win world and Olympic women's kayak medals. "I feel good," she said. "In the final, everyone will be at their maximum and it will be (very close)."

Idem lost to Canada's Caroline Brunet in an earlier heat and will face a tough race from Hungary's Natasa Janics in the final but she said her start and overall race in the semi were better.

Germany's Katrin Wagner, double Olympic champion in crew boats in Sydney, won the first semi-final comfortably.