Canadian Doubles, 500 metres, Men

Hungary’s György Kolonics and Csaba Horváth had won the C-2 500 event at the 1996 Summer Olympics, as well as the 1995, 1997, and 1998 World Championships, but a new pair in the form of Imre Pulai and Ferenc Novák had taken up the nation’s mantle in this event from 1999 on. They had only managed silver at the most recent World Championships, however, losing to Poland’s Paweł Baraszkiewicz and Daniel Jędraszko, who were also the 1997 European Champions. Romania’s Florin Popescu, meanwhile, had won the 1999 European Championships with Gheorghe Andriev, and was present at the 2000 Summer Olympics with Mitică Pricop.

Poland and Romania were the victors in the opening heats, with Hungary also qualifying automatically to the final after placing second behind Cuba’s Leobaldo Pereira and Ibrahim Rojas. The final developed into a close battle between Poland and Hungary, which the latter managed to win by a mere 0.252 seconds to claim gold. Poland thus settled for silver while Romania came in nearly three seconds later for bronze. This was Popescu and Pricop’s second medal of the regatta, as they had won the C-2 1000 the previous day.