33-year-old canoeist Petter Menning, former world champion in 2013, continued to paddle well in the Olympics.
And at the Sea Forest Waterway in Tokyo, he finished third in his semifinal in the K1 200 meters.
He ran a time of 35,149, slower than in the heat (34,698) but that applied to everyone in the 200 meters.
In the semis, only the Hungarian Kolos Csizmadia, and the reigning Olympic champion Liam Heath, Great Britain, were faster than the Swede.
Who made sure that the Frenchman Maxime Beaumont (silver in the 2016 Olympics) and the Serb Strahinja Stefanovic (World Cup silver 2019) can only paddle in the b-final.
The final for the medals, Menning's first in the Olympics, will be decided tonight at 04.42 Swedish time.