Germany, Belarus, Britain and Hungary claimed gold medals yesterday at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Park.
Germany was successful in the women’s kayak four (K4) 500m and the kayak two (K2) 1,000m, while Briton Tim Brabants won the kayak single (K1) over 1,000m and Attila Sandor Vajda from Hungary took gold in the canoe single (C1) over 1,000m.
There was joy for Andrei Bahdanovich and Aliaksandr Bahdanovich in the men’s C2 1,000m canoe as the Belarus pair took gold ahead of Germany’s Christian Gille and Tomasz Wylenzek. Hungary’s Gyorgy Kozmann and Tamas Kiss claimed bronze.
PHOTO: AFP
“We felt good and were prepared for the race. We were not afraid of Germany going ahead at the beginning,” said Bahdanovich. “We were physically fit in this final and now we have achieved our goal.”
Belarus also secured gold in the men’s K4 1,000m kayak, with silver going to Slovakia and Germany having to be satisfied with bronze.
Raman Piatrushenka, Aliaksei Abalmasau, Artur Litvinchuk and Vadzim Makhneu claimed the win in a time of two minutes, 55.714 seconds.
Brabants, who is the reigning world champion in the K1, but only has an Olympic bronze medal from Athens to his credit, won his event in 3:26.323 minutes ahead of Norwegian Eirik Veraas Larsen, who was the defending champion and Ken Wallace from Australia.
Brabants said his strategy had worked out.
“It’s incredible, absolutely incredible. The race went 100 percent to plan. I need to thank my coach and now I am an Olympic champion,” he said. “I’ve had a great season and to finish it up with the most enjoyable race I’ve ever had is fantastic. When you realise you’ve crossed the line first you don’t feel tired.”
He said he was already thinking of the next Olympics.
“London is definitely on the cards now, don’t be surprised to see me in London ready to represent Great Britain again,” he said.
In the C1, Vadja beat Spain’s David Cal and Canadian Thomas Hall to the gold. The Hungarian won in 3:50.46, beating Cal by 2.284 seconds, while Hall took bronze.
Vadja was proud to be the first Hungarian gold medal winner in Beijing. “Hopefully I will not be the last.
“For the first 500m my aim was just to keep the pace with the others then my real race started. I knew David Cal couldn’t keep up with me,” the Hungarian said.
Cal, though, said he was disappointed.
“I could have done better. I’ve given my best but I am very sad. I was fighting for the gold medal. I am not satisfied,” he said.
The German four of Fanny Fischer, Nicole Reinhardt, Katrin Wagner-Augustin and Conny Wasmuth clinched the women’s K4 over 500m, with Hungary taking silver and Australia bronze.
It was the fourth Olympic gold medal for Wagner-Augustin, who won gold in Athens in the K4 and in the K2 and K4 in Sydney, while Fischer followed a family tradition, as her mother Sarina Huelsenbeck won two gold medals at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow as part of the East German swimming relay team.
“We won easily, that was just incredible,” Wagner-Augustin said.
The Germans won in a time of 1:32.231, beating Hungary by 0.740 seconds.
Germany added a second gold as Andreas Ihle and Martin Hollstein won the K2, beating Kim Wraae Knudsen and Rene Holten Poulsen from Denmark into second place.
Andrea Facchin and Antonio Scaduto from Italy took the bronze.
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