Kayak Fours, 500 metres, Women

Germany and Hungary were the traditional rivals in the women’s K-4 500 and the former, in addition to having been victorious in the event at the last three Olympics, had won nearly every recent edition of the European and World Championships, except for the 2006 edition of both tournaments. These two nations won their opening heats and then raced to the finish ahead of the rest of the pack in the final. Germany, for the fourth consecutive time, emerged victorious, this time by a margin of 0.74 seconds, while Hungary once again settled for silver. Two members of the Hungarian team, Katalin Kovács and Natasa Janics, would get their revenge against the Germans the next day by winning the K-2 500, while Germany’s Katrin Wagner-Augustin would go on to take bronze in the K-1 500.