Canadian Doubles, 500 metres, Men

György Kolonics and Csaba Horváth of Hungary had won the C-2 500 at two of the last three editions of the World Championships and were favored to take the title at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Aleksandr Maseykov and Dmitry Dovgalyonok, now representing Belarus, were the defending Olympic champions, but had had more success in the C-2 200 in recent years. Romania’s Gheorghe Andriev and Grigore Obreja, meanwhile, were the 1994 World Champions, while Bulgaria’s Martin Marinov and Blagovest Stoyanov were the 1992 Olympic and 1994 World bronze medalists. Finally there was Nicolae Juravschi and Victor Reneischi, who had won the C-2 500 and 1000 for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Games, but had been denied the opportunity to defend their crown under the banner of the Soviet successor “Unified Team” (Juravschi, however, was eventually given the chance to compete for Romania). At the 1996 Olympics, however, they were representing Moldova together and were eager to race once more.

Hungary, Moldova, and Romania won their opening heats, while Bulgaria came in third in Juravschi and Reneischi’s heat, behind Andreas Dittmer and Gunar Kirchbach of Germany, the 1993 and 1995 World bronze medalists. Maseykov and Dovgalyonok, meanwhile, were relegated to the repêchage by Horváth and Kolonics. Moldova was runner-up to Romania in the first semi-final heat, while Hungary, Germany, Belarus, and Bulgaria finished in that order in the other heat. Hungary led for much of the final and, although they were eventually overtaken by Moldova, they managed a comeback in the last few meters and won the gold medal by 0.036 seconds. Thus Juravschi and Reneischi took silver while Romania came in soon after for bronze, having staved off a challenge from Germany by 0.424 seconds. This was Horváth and Kolonics’ second medal of the regatta, as they had taken bronze in the C-2 1000 the day before.