Canoe Sprint: McKeever books berth in kayak final

Ed McKeever competes at Eton Dorney yesterday (Getty Images)

Britain's sprint kayaker Ed McKeever will go for gold in the single 200m competition today.

The world silver and European bronze medallist won his semi-final in 35.619sec yesterday.

McKeever, who beat his main rival Mark de Jonge of Canada by 0.1sec, marked his victory by turning to the grandstands and pumping his fists to the delight of the crowds on the banks of Eton Dorney.

"Obviously, it's nice to win your semi-final," McKeever said. "You get a nice central lane for tomorrow's race and I am really looking forward to it.

"I see a headwind is forecast so that could mean slower times but I have done lots of fitness work over the winter, so hopefully I can come out all right on the day.

"Obviously, the Games kicked off two weeks ago. We have been on a training camp so we are not hanging around waiting, and I think that has worked well. I did watch the dressage: a first for me."

Liam Heath and Jon Schofield will contest for a medal in the men's two-man kayak final after finishing second in their semi-final.

Jess Walker qualified as sixth-fastest for the women's kayak single 200m final after finishing second in her heat behind Natalia Lobova of Russia.

But Richard Jefferies misses out on a final place after finishing sixth in his canoe single semi-final with a time of 43.213sec. The result means he also misses the B final.

Jefferies said: "It felt like it was normal to me but they jumped up on me. I don't really know what happened. For some reason, I didn't get out of the blocks as well as I normally do, so it just left me with a lot of work to do.

"The thing that was bothering me the most was that the wind kept picking up and dropping.

"It was lot stronger for the first heat and then dropped off a lot for the second."