Germany wins gold in men's kayak four 500m; Hungary first in women’s kayak four 500 meters

Germany won the men’s kayak four 500 meters while Hungary took the top honour in the women’s kayak four 500 meters.

Germany's Max Rendschmidt, Ronald Rauhe, Tom Liebscher and Max Lemke celebrate after winning the gold medals in the men's kayak four 500m final.

Germany won the men’s kayak four 500 meters to make Ronald Rauhe the first man to medal in canoe sprint in five Olympic Games.

The 39-year-old Rauhe is also the second-oldest gold medal winner in the men’s canoe sprint. Only Sweden’s Gert Fredriksson was older at 40 in 1960.

The German kayak was trailing Spain at the 250-meter mark before rallying to win by 0.226 seconds. Spain won silver, and Slovakia won bronze.

The men’s kayak four 500 at the Tokyo Games replaced the kayak four 1,000, which was held from 1964 to 2016.

 

Hungary strikes gold

Danuta Kozak, Tamara Csipes, and Anna Karasz, Dora Bodonyi, of Hungary, compete in the women's kayak four 500m final A at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

 

Hungary won the gold medal in the women’s kayak four 500 meters. New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington missed a fourth medal of the Tokyo Games when the Kiwi boat finished fourth.

Hungary finished 0.61 seconds clear of silver medalists Belarus and Poland won the bronze. The New Zealand kayak was in medal position halfway through the race before fading late.

Carrington had already won three gold medals, in the single 200 and 500 and 500 pairs. She has five gold medals in her Olympic career and six overall.

Earlier in the day, China won the women's canoe double 500m final with Ukraine and Canada taking silver and bronze medals respectively.

In the men's canoe single 1000m final, Queiroz dos Santos of Brazil won gold with China's Liu Hao and Republic of Moldova's Tarnovschi finishing second and third respectively.