Kayak Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men

Sweden’s Henrik Nilsson and Markus Oscarsson, the 2000 Olympic runners-up, had won the K-2 1000 at the last two editions of the World Championships, as well as the 2002 European Championships, and were the favorites in the event at the 2004 Games. Norway’s Eirik Verås Larsen and Nils Olav Fjeldheim were also a strong duo, having won the 2001 and 2004 European and 2001 World Championships and taken silver and bronze at the 2002 Worlds and Europeans respectively. Italy’s Antonio Rossi and Beniamino Bonomi were the defending Olympic champions, but had not medalled at a major international event since. Sweden and Norway won their opening heats, with the latter posting a slightly faster time, and qualified directly for the final, while Italy was sixth in Sweden’s heat and qualified for the final only by placing second in the semi-finals, behind Belgium’s Wouter D’Haene and Bob Maesen, the 2003 World runners-up. Sweden took command in the final and won gold with by over a second ahead of its nearest competitor. Italy, meanwhile, had to fend off Norway in order to take silver, which it did by a margin of only 0.044 seconds. Norway had slightly more breathing room, 0.428 seconds, over Australia’s David Rhodes and Danny Collins, the latter of whom was a bronze and silver medalist in the K-2 500 at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics respectively. Larsen thus added bronze to the gold medal he had won in the K-1 1000 earlier in the day.