Success in competitive canoe sprint racing is achieved by taking the shortest time to complete each distance course. This time is dependent on the average speed of the boat, and the average speed is determined by the product of the distance per stroke (DPS) and the stroke ratio (SR). The purpose of this study was to investigate the DPS and SR during menʼs canoe single (C1) races (200, 500, 1000m) in the All Japan International Canoe Sprint Championship.
    The average boat velocity (BV), DPS and SR were determined by recordings using 3 cameras installed at the initial, middle and final section (each section is 25 m) of each race. The subjects were 18 male paddlers, who are finalists of Final A (9 paddlers from 1^st place to 9^th place) and Final B (9 paddlers from 10^th place to 18^th place).
    The BV was significantly higher in Final A than in Final B over all race distances. The SR of each section was significantly higher in Final A than in Final B, but the DPS was not significantly different in most of the race distances. The correlation between BV and SR was significant, although the correlation between BV and DPS was not significant in all of the race distances.
    These results suggest that SR influences BV as a race strategy in C1 races. In addition, DPS in Final A tended to not be long length as a result of high SR.