London Spy

Sport guide: Canoeing

Brabants after winning silver at the 2010 Canoe Sprint World Championships


Canoeing and kayaking as straight races, over flat water, were added to the Olympic schedule for Berlin in 1936. The white-water slalom events made a one-off appearance in 1972 and became a fixture in the schedule from 1992.

The canoe races are head-to-head, men-only contests for individuals or pairs, with the participants using a single-bladed paddle in a kneeling position.

The men's and women's kayak events are contested by individuals, pairs and teams of four who are seated and use paddles with blades at each end. Men race over 1,000 metres, women over 500m, and the London Games will see the introduction of 200m races for pairs and individuals.

Slalom events involve setting the best time through up to 25 gates on a white-water course. Competitors incur a penalty of 25 seconds for touching a gate and 50 seconds for missing a gate. In London there will be individual men's and women's kayak slalom competitions, while the men will also have individual and pairs canoe slalom events.

Twins Pavol and Peter Hochschorner of Slovakia made history in Beijing four years ago, when, at the age of only 28, they completed a golden hat-trick in the C2 slalom.

Birgit Fischer - who competed in the kayak singles, doubles and fours for East Germany and then the united Germany - won eight gold medals and four silvers in an Olympic career that began in Moscow in 1980 and lasted until Athens in 2004.

However, Sweden's Gert Fredriksson holds the record for the most individual gold medals with six, including five in the K1 — three over 1,000m and two in the now-defunct 10,000m — between 1948 and 1960.

C1 200M
1 Ivan Shtyl (Russia)
2 Valentin Demyanenko (Azerbaijan)
3 Yuriy Cheban (Ukraine)
4 Jevgenij Shuklin (Lithuania)
5 Richard Dalton (Canada)
6 Thomas Simart (France)
7 Alfonso Benavides (Spain)
8 Nivalter Santos de Jesus (Brazil)
C1 1000M
1 Vadim Menkov (Uzbekistan)
2 Attila Vajda (Hungary)
3 Sebastian Brendel (Germany)
4 David Cal (Spain)
5 Mark Oldershaw (Canada)
6 Mathieu Goubel (France)
7 Aliaksandr Zhukouski (Belarus)
8 Tomasz Kaczor (Poland)
K1 200M
1 Ed McKeever (Great Britain)
2 Piotr Siemionowski (Poland)
3 Ronald Rauhe (Germany)
4 Oleg Kharytonov (Ukraine)
5 Maxim Beaumont (France)
6 Saul Craviotto (Spain)
7 Artem Kononyuk (Russia)
8 Michele Zerial (Italy)
K1 1000M
1 Max Hoff (Germany)
2 Adam Van Koeverden (Canada)
3 Anders Gustafsson (Sweden)
4 Aleh Yurenia (Belarus)
5 Eirik Verås Larsen (Norway)
6 René Poulsen (Denmark)
7 Tim Brabants (Great Britain)
8 Ken Wallace (Australia)
C2 1000M
1 Bezugly/Prokopenko (Azerbaijan)
2 An. Bahdanovich/Al. Bahdanovich (Belarus)
3 Holtz/Wylenzek (Germany)
4 Dumitrescu/Mihalachi (Romania)
5 Korovashkov/Pervuchin (Russia)
6 Toth/Mike (Hungary)
7 Radon/Dvorak (Czech Republic)
8 Woszczynski/Grzybowski (Poland)
K2 200M
1 Hybois/Jouve (France)
2 Heath/Schofield (Great Britain)
3 Piatrushenka/Makhnev (Belarus)
4 Craviotto/Pérez (Spain)
5 Straume/Rumjancevs (Latvia)
6 Cochrane/Fournel (Canada)
7 Mitrea/Mada (Romania)
8 Postrigay/Molochkov (Russia)
K2 1000M
1 Hollstein/Ihle (Germany)
2 Gelle/Vlcek (Slovakia)
3 Yurchenko/Pogreban (Russia)
4 Oscarsson/Nilsson (Sweden)
5 Kammerer/Vereckei (Hungary)
6 Morrison/Smith (Australia)
7 Cauwenbergh/Pannecoucke (Belgium)
8 Stanojevic/Pajic (Serbia)
K4 1000M
1 Germany
2 Belarus
3 Australia
4 France
5 Slovakia
6 Russia
7 Czech Republic
8 Portugal
K1 200M
1 Marta Walczykiewicz (Poland)
2 Natasa Janics (Hungary)
3 Inna Osypenko (Ukraine)
4 Lisa Carrington (New Zealand)
5 Shinobu Kitamoto (Japan)
6 Nicole Reinhardt (Germany)
7 Jenni Mikkonen (Finland)
8 Alana Nicholls (Australia)
K1 500M
1 Inna Osypenko (Ukraine)
2 Nicole Reinhardt (Germany)
3 Danusia Kozák (Hungary)
4 Rachel Cawthorn (Great Britain)
5 Henriette Engel Hansen (Denmark)
6 Josefa Idem (Italy)
7 Teresa Portela (Portugal)
8 Alana Nicholls (Australia)
K2 500M
1 Schuring/Schwarz (Austria)
2 Szabo/Kozák (Hungary)
3 Mikolajczyk/Konieczna (Poland)
4 Weber/Dietze (Germany)
5 Salakova/Sergeeva (Russia)
6 Nordlöv/Paldanius (Sweden)
7 Khudzenka/Paltaran (Belarus)
8 Kmetova/Kohlova (Slovakia)
1 Germany
2 Hungary
3 Belarus
4 Poland
5 Great Britain
6 Portugal
7 Spain
8 Australia
1 Tony Estanguet (France)
2 Michal Martikán (Slovakia)
3 Nico Bettge (Germany)
4 Stanislav Jezek (Czech Republic)
5 Benjamin Savsek (Slovenia)
6 David Florence (Great Britain)
7 Ander Elosegi (Spain)
8 Roberto Colazingari (Italy)

1 Pa. Hochschorner/Pe. Hochschorner (Slovakia)
2 Lefevre/Gargaud-Chanut (France)
3 L. Škantar/P. Škantar (Slovakia)
4 Bozic/Taljat (Slovenia)
5 Florence/Hounslow (Great Britain)
6 Volf/Štepanek (Czech Republic)
7 Klauss/Peche (France)
8 Masoero/Benetti (Italy)

1 Daniele Molmenti (Italy)
2 Peter Kauzer (Slovenia)
3 Vavrinec Hradilek (Czech Republic)
4 Fabien Lefevre (France)
5 Mateusz Polaczyk (Poland)
6 Alexander Grimm (Germany)
7 Samuel Hernanz (Spain)
8 Michael Kurt (Switzerland)

1 Jana Dukatova (Slovakia)
2 Corinna Kuhnle (Austria)
3 Maialen Chourraut (Spain)
4 Melanie Pfeifer (Germany)
5 Ursa Kragelj (Slovenia)
6 Fiona Pennie (Great Britain)
7 Emilie Fer (France)
8 Clara Giai Pron (Italy)

In both flatwater and whitewater, heats are followed by semi-finals and then a final. There are four whitewater slalom (three for men, one for women) and 12 flatwater sprint events (seven for men, five for women).

All athletes run the course twice in the slalom heats, and the results from the better of these two runs determine which athletes qualify for the semi-final. The semi-final and the final of each event consist of one run only. There are up to eight boats in each flatwater heat, each allocated a nine-metre wide lane.






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