Luuka Jones has joined her fellow New Zealand kayaker Mike Dawson in the semi-finals of the Olympic Games women's canoe slalom, but only just.
Requiring a top 15 time from the best of her two runs on the Lee Valley course, the Rotorua paddler finished 15th of the 21 competitors after a useful first run.
Jones had the sixth fastest time of the first runs but six penalty seconds incurred after hitting three of the 22 gates put her back to 10th place after the first run.
She had a disastrous second run, missing three gates and hitting another, but her first run was good enough to get her through, and improvement from other riders pushed her back to 15th place.
The semi-finalists have one run on Thursday to qualify for the 10-woman final, in which the medals will be decided with a separate run later that day.
Dawson qualified eighth from the heats in the men's K1 kayak class and his finals day is on Wednesday.
NZN