Kayak Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men

New Zealand’s Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald were the reigning World Champions in the K-2 1000 and, having also won the K-2 500 the previous day, were favorites going into the final round of this event. Canada, the most recent Olympic champion, sent Don Brien and Colin Shaw, the 1985 World bronze medalists, to defend their title, but 1987 Pan American champions Norman Bellingham and Greg Barton of the United States were the class of the North American field and had a strong claim to the Olympic title. Barton also won the K-1 1000 the day prior to this event’s final. New Zealand defeated the United States in the opening round in Olympic record time, but by a margin of only 0.06 seconds. Canada, meanwhile, finished sixth in a heat won by Italians Bruno Dreossi and Alessandro Pieri and survived only through the repêchage, while East Germany’s Guido Behling and Torsten Krentz took the third heat. New Zealand again posted the fastest time in the semi-finals, helping to eliminate Canada in the process, while the United States bested East Germany in another heat and Romania’s Daniel Stoian and Angelin Velea, the 1986 World Champions, won a third heat and helped eliminate Italy. New Zealand led the pack for most of the final, with Australians’ Peter Foster and Kelvin Graham hot on their tail and occasionally passing them, but began to run out of steam near the end, which gave just enough room for the Americans to take the gold by 0.29 seconds. Thus the New Zealanders settled for silver and the Australians came in just over a second later for bronze.

The French team of Philippe Boccara and Pascal Boucherit were considered strong medal contenders and advanced to the semi-finals. However, they arrived late for the start, and were both disqualified from the entire canoeing regatta in Seoul. This also eliminated Boccara from the K1 final, for which he had qualified.