Today we saw four more sets of medals awarded in the Olympic flatwater sprint regatta at Eton Dorney, Buckinghamshire.
The men's tandem canoeists started things off with their 1000-meter final. If you like buff men putting their fluid power on display, this is your class.
Azerbaijan's Sergiy Bezugliy and Maksim Prokopenko bolted out to the lead and held it for 750 meters. But they couldn't hold it for another 250, and the German pair of Peter Kretschmer and Kurt Kuschela powered into the lead. Kretschmer/Kuschela pulled away to win the gold; the Azerbaijanis strained to hold on for a medal but were overtaken just a few meters from the finish by the Bahdanovich brothers of Belarus and Russians Alexey Korovashkov and Ilya Pervukhin.
Next came the incredible speed of the K4 class. Legend has long had it that a world-class K4 can pull a water skier, and today NBC showed some taped footage from yesterday of a K4 doing just that.
But it was all business today as the eight finalists lined up for the 1000 meters. Australia had had the fastest time in the semifinal round, and they charged out into the lead in today's final. Reigning world champion Germany was in close pursuit, as were Hungary and Slovakia, the two teams that had advanced straight to the final from the heats.
The Europeans were all hoping the Aussies would fade, but they never did. Surf-lifesavers-turned-flatwater-racers Tate Smith, Dave Smith, Murray Stewart, and Jacob Clear did their part to help their nation turn the tide after a disappointing first week at these Games--Australia has now won four gold medals in various sports this week. Smith, Smith, Stewart, and Clear are only the third non-European foursome ever to win the 1000-meter K4.
Behind the Aussies, Hungary held on for the silver, and the Czech Republic came on strong at the end to edge Germany for the bronze by about three tenths of a second. The Slovaks faded to sixth.
Eight women paddled up to the starting line for their 500-meter final. Italy's 47-year-old Josefa Idem, an eight-time Olympian, was the sentimental favorite, but the competition was formidable. Beijing gold medalist Inna Osypenko-Radomska of Ukraine was in the field, as was the silver medalist at last year's worlds, Hungary's Danuta Kozac, and the bronze medalist at the 2010 worlds, Rachel Cawthorn of Great Britain.
As Kozac took the early lead, Osypenko-Radomska challenged the conventional wisdom with her awkward-looking form. I've always been taught to sit up straight in the boat to get maximum leverage on my strokes, and I've spent many hours on the water trying to get it right. But Osypenko-Radomska leans way forward in her boat, almost slumped over. It seems to work for her, and she was in contention the whole way.
Kozac was too strong for the others in the end. Osypenko-Radomska held on for silver, and South Africa's Bridgitte Hartley edged out Sweden's Sofia Paldanius for the bronze. Idem ended up fifth.
The last race of the day was the women's 500-meter double kayak final. Katalin Kovacs and Natasa Janics of Hungary were looking to win their third straight Olympic gold. But the other flatwater sprint superpower, Germany, had a pretty good pair in Franziska Weber and Tina Dietze, and these girls took the pace out hard and won the race, beating Kovacs/Janics by more than a full second. The Polish pair of Karolina Naja and Beata Mikolajczyk survived a hard-charging Chinese team of Yanan Wu and Yu Zhou to win the bronze.
NBC has posted a set of highlight videos here.
And so the "long" races of this flatwater sprint regatta are now over. The next two days will see the 200-meter distance make its Olympic debut. It's one more chance for the United States to make a mark in this European-dominated sport, as Carrie Johnson of San Diego and Tim Hornsby of Atlanta will both race single kayak.
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