Angel Kodinov secured a second quota place for Rio in the canoe-kayak event at the World Championships in Duisburg, Germany

The Bulgarian Angel Kodinov secured a second quota place in canoe-kayak for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics following a dramatic European qualifier in Duisburg (Germany).

After a superb race, the 18-year-old from Plovdiv finished third in the 1,000-metre single canoe final with a time of 4:01.069 mins, with Romania’s Leonid Karp and Italy’s Carlo Tacchini finishing ahead of him, who clocked 3:59.490 mins.

However, only the top two finishers qualify for Rio, so our lad fell just under six tenths of a second short of the much-coveted place. A day earlier – in the 1,000 m heats – Angel faced the same rivals, but on that occasion he managed to overtake the Italian. In the final Kodinov got off to a great start and was second after the first 250 metres, but Tacchini then gradually managed to push him out of second place.

A little later, however, came the dramatic denouement for our 18-year-old canoeist. The Romanian Karp and his partner in the 1,000-metre canoe doubles, Stefan Andrei, finished first in the final of the event and secured a place at the Olympics in Brazil in the doubles.

According to the rules of the international federation, if a competitor secures a place in a larger boat than the single, they vacate their place in the smaller one.

Consequently, the Romanian’s place in the single canoe was awarded to Kodinov, and our lad will be travelling to Brazil, where he will be able to compete side by side with his idol – the Czech Martin Fuchs.

Miroslav Kirchev, meanwhile, secured his place at the Rio Olympics in the 1,000-metre single kayak as early as last year’s World Championships.