Para-canoe World Championships: Jeanette Chippington surrenders title with bronze

Jeanette Chippington held the Para-canoe 'Grand Slam' of Paralympic, European and world titles across 2016-17 and retained her European KL1 title in June

Paralympic champion Jeanette Chippington won Britain's fourth medal of the Para-canoe World Championships with KL1 bronze in Portugal.

The 48-year-old was the defending champion in the event, but was unable to rival gold medallist Maryna Mazhula.

The Ukrainian won the 200m title in 55.665 seconds with Italy's Eleonora De Paolis edging Chippington to silver by just 0.255 secs.

"Thank goodness I got a medal," Chippington told BBC Sport.

"I knew going into the race it could be anything from first to sixth because the sport is getting stronger, but this proves I'm still up there in the mix.

"It's sad to lose the world title, but I did that before Rio [2016 Paralympics] and came back with all of that determination and fight to make sure I won there, so I've learnt a lot from this."

Chippington will return for the VL2 canoe final on Saturday, where she will face fellow Rio 2016 champion and team-mate Emma Wiggs in the event, which will be a new addition to the Paralympic programme for Tokyo 2020.

In the day's other Para-canoe finals, Britain's Robert Oliver finished an agonising fourth in the KL3 200m while Rio Olympic bronze medallist Nick Beighton was seventh in the KL2 200m event.