Canoe Singles (C1), 500 metres, Men

Since 1998, Russia’s Maksim Opalev had won numerous European and World Championship titles in the C-1 500, but an Olympic title had eluded him over the last two editions. Since the 2004 Games he had won the 2005 and 2006 European Championships, the 2006 World Championships, and come in third at the 2005 Worlds. His greatest rival was Germany’s Andreas Dittmer, the 2004 Olympic champion who, since his victory, had been the 2007 European and 2005 World Champion, as well as the 2007 World runner-up and the 2005 European bronze medalist. Spain’s David Cal, the 2004 Olympic runner-up, was the reigning World Champion and the 2007 European bronze medalist.

Cal and Opalev won their opening heats and advanced directly to the final, but Dittmer came fourth in a heat won by Aleksandr Zhukovsky of Belarus. This relegated him to the semi-finals, where he was eliminated after coming in fourth in a heat taken by Ukraine’s Yuriy Cheban, a 2006 World runner-up and 2006 and 2008 European bronze medalist. With his strongest challenger out of the running, Opalev had little trouble in winning the medal round, finally taking Olympic gold on his third attempt. The race for the remaining podium spots was tighter, with Cal, Cheban, Mathieu Goubel of France, Zhukovsky, and China’s Li Qiang all finishing in that order within a second of each other. This was Cal’s second silver medal of the regatta, as he had also been runner-up in the C-1 1000 the previous day.