Brazilian Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos was denied a golden finish to his crackling Olympic run on Saturday, coming in second in the men's C-2 1000-metre race.
Germany won gold in the highly anticipated canoe sprint event in 3:43.912, nearly a full second ahead of the Brazilian boat, while Ukraine took bronze.
The victory, alongside Jan Vandrey, marked German paddler Sebastian Brendel's second gold of the Games. Brendel took gold in the men's C-1 1000 metres on Tuesday, successfully defending his Olympic title in the event.
Queiroz dos Santos previously won silver and bronze in the men's C-1 1000 metres and men's C-2 200 metres, respectively.
Charming home-country crowds since his debut here at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon, Queiroz dos Santos is Brazil's first-ever Olympic medallist in canoe sprint.
Queiroz dos Santos and team mate Erlon de Souza Silva led for much of the race to wild applause from the crowd, which chanted “Brazil! Brazil! Brazil!” Onlookers outside the venue crowded the sidewalk and peered across the lagoon to watch.
Germany overtook the field only in the last moments, claiming first place in the home stretch.
Britain gets its 25th gold
Liam Heath brought home Britain's 25th gold medal on Saturday, winning the men's K-1 200-metre sprint in a neck-and-neck battle with France's Maxime Beaumont.
Heath, 32, claimed victory in 35.197 seconds, just 0.165 seconds faster than silver medallist Beaumont.
Spain's Saul Craviotto and Germany's Ronald Rauhe tied for bronze, with identical finishing times down to the thousandth of a second.
Heath said he was overjoyed by the results.
“I could be up with Jesus Christ looking down,” said Heath. "It's an absolutely incredible feeling. Hard to put into words.”
The British paddler won silver in the men's K-2 200m race on Thursday. In the 2012 Games, he took bronze in that same event.
Hungary's Kozak paddles her way to a triple gold
Hungarian kayaker Danuta Kozak won her third gold medal of the Games on Saturday, a rare feat that has been matched by just two canoe sprint athletes before her.
Kozak and teammates Gabriella Szabo, Tamara Csipes and Krisztina Fazekas-Zur won the women's K-4 500-metre sprint in 1:31.482, ahead of silver medal-winning Germany and bronze-winning Belarus.
The victory is the latest in Hungary's history of dominance in the sport. Hungary's women won the event at the 2012 Games and took silver in the K-4 at the 2008, 2004 and 2000 Olympics.
Kozak is the first woman to win three gold medals in canoe sprint in a single Olympic Games and the third athlete in the sport overall, after Vladimir Parfenovic of the Soviet Republic in 1980 and Ian Ferguson of New Zealand in 1984.
If that feat sounds unbelievable, Kozak herself has yet to process it.
“I'm very happy,” Kozak said after the race. “I think I need some time until I believe it.”
Kozak is now one of her country's most decorated Olympians, having won five gold medals and a silver. Her two other gold medals in Rio were in the women's K-2 500m on Tuesday and K-1 500m on Thursday.
Germany gets its fourth goldin Canoeing
In the men's K-4 1000m sprint, Germany claimed its fourth canoe sprint gold medal, beating silver medal-winning Slovakia and bronze-winning the Czech Republic
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