How a canoe sprint race works

1. The letter is the boat and the number is the crew. K is a kayak, paddled sitting with a two-bladed paddle; C is a canoe, paddled with a single blade. So K1 is a single kayak and C2 a canoe for two.
2. Boats race on flat water over 200, 500 or 1000 metres in straight lanes; the 5000 metres has no lanes. The start is "Ready – Set – Go", and a second false start by the same boat means disqualification.
3. The first boat whose bow crosses the finish line, with all its crew in it, wins. A photo finish decides close races.
4. When there are more boats than lanes, the event runs in heats, semi-finals and a final.

The clock

Times are recorded to a thousandth of a second and published to a hundredth.