Canoeing at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Women's K-1 500 metres

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The women's K-1 500 metres was a competition in canoeing at the 1956 Summer Olympics. The K-1 event is raced by single-person canoe sprint kayaks. Heat and finals took place on December 1.

Medalists

Gold Gold Silver Silver Bronze Bronze
 Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS)  Therese Zenz (EUA)  Tove Søby (DEN)

Heats

The ten competitors first raced in three heats. The top four finishers in each heat moved directly to the final.

Heat 1
1.  Therese Zenz (EUA) 2:17.6 QF
2.  Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS) 2:20.9 QF
3.  Edith Cochrane (AUS) 2:24.0 QF
4.  Patricia Moody (GBR) 2:26.7 QF
5.  Helga Hellebrand (AUT) 2:27.5
Heat 2
1.  Tove Søby (DEN) 2:23.7 QF
2.  Cecilia Berkes (HUN) 2:25.3 QF
3.  Daniela Walkowiak (POL) 2:25.8 QF
4.  Eva Marion (FRA) 2:29.4 QF
5.  Eila Eskola (FIN) 2:31.4

Final

Gold  Yelizaveta Dementyeva (URS) 2:18.9
Silver  Therese Zenz (EUA) 2:19.6
Bronze  Tove Søby (DEN) 2:22.3
4.  Cecilia Berkes (HUN) 2:23.5
5.  Edith Cochrane (AUS) 2:23.8
6.  Daniela Walkowiak (POL) 2:24.1
7.  Patricia Moody (GBR) 2:25.3
8.  Eva Marion (FRA) 2:27.9

Dementyeva false-started once, then won the event by two meters after spurting to the lead after the start. Fifth-place finisher Cochrane never trained with or competed against women prior to the Olympics.

References