World Sprint Canoe Championships: Lizzie Broughton wins K1 5,000m gold
- Published
Lizzie Broughton also won K1 1,000m silver at the event in Portugal
Britain's Lizzie Broughton won the first major title of her career with K1 5,000m gold on the final day of the World Sprint Canoe Championships.
The 30-year-old surged clear after a tense battle with Maryna Litvinchuk from Belarus to win by more than 10 seconds in Portugal.
Broughton, who specialises in 26km marathon canoeing events, won K1 1,000m silver on Friday.
"It's just incredible to have my first world title," she told BBC Sport.
"I'm proud of what I did today by proving that marathon athletes can do sprints as well."
Broughton found herself down the field after a few clashes in the early stages, but gradually gained places and held her position behind the leaders until she felt ready to attack. She won in 24 minutes 1.737 seconds.
Earlier, Britain's Jessica Walker delivered the best performance of her career with an impressive fifth in the women's K1 200m final.
"I know it was close to a medal, but if you'd offered me that at the start of the year I'd have taken it, so I'm really happy," said three-time Olympian Walker, who finished 0.14 seconds off the podium.
It was the best result from a British athlete in the Olympic events, with Broughton's medals coming in non-Olympic disciplines.
Olympic silver medallist Jon Schofield failed to qualify from the semi-finals of the K1 200m, while he, Olympic champion Liam Heath, Lewis Fletcher and Matthew Robinson finished 13th in the K4 500m.
"It's incredibly difficulty as it's not just about throwing the four fastest together. You need the connectivity to drive it forwards," Heath said.
"When something's out of sync you really feel it, but winning Olympic medals is the target of all athletes and we want to be pushing ourselves to achieve more."
GB finished 11th in the medal table with two, while they topped the Para-canoeing medal table with seven.
British Canoeing performance director Paul Ratcliffe said: "We've appointed new coaches, have young athletes and are building strength in depth, but we need to be patient and remember it's about the long game."