World Sprint Canoe Championships: Lizzie Broughton wins surprise K1 1,000m silver
- Published
Broughton has specialised in 26km events
Britain's Lizzie Broughton claimed a surprise K1 1,000m silver medal at the World Sprint Canoe Championships in Montemor O Velho, Portugal.
The Briton climbed from fourth to second in the closing stages of the 1,000m race, which was dominated by Hungarian Dora Bodonyi.
Broughton is a 26km marathon canoeing specialist and claimed world silver over that distance in 2014 and European bronze this year.
"Winning silver is awesome," she said.
The 30-year-old only tried out the K1 1,000m for the first time last year and although she had won gold and silver medals during this season's World Cup circuit, the World Championships silver shocked even the athlete herself.
"I knew I'd had some success coming into this but the standard is usually a really big step-up when it comes to the World Championships," she told BBC Sport.
"My aim was to make the final, then I thought about top five and only in the last 100 metres did I think about a medal, so it's a real surprise."
The women's K1 1,000m event is not in the programme for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but Broughton says she may now considering trying the K1 500m distance in a bid to reach the next Games.
"It's not easy balancing full-time work and training but I'll certainly give the 500m a bit of a go next season," she said. "Let's see what happens!"
Broughton will return for the 5,000m event on Sunday.
Saturday's action will see Olympic champion Liam Heath and Olympic silver medallist Jon Schofield begin their World Championship campaigns.