Canadian Doubles, 1,000 metres, Men

Russians Aleksandr Kostoglod and Aleksandr Kovalyov had won the C-2 1000 event at the last two editions of the World Championships, as well as at the most recent European Championships, and were favored to take the title at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Germany, meanwhile, had been the victors at the last two editions of the Games, as well as the 1997 World Championships, and sent Lars Kober and Stefan Uteß to Sydney. Cuba’s Leobaldo Pereira and Ibrahim Rojas were the most recent champions from the Pan American Games. Russia emerged victorious in its opening heat, while Cuba and Germany were third and fourth respectively in a heat won by Romania’s Mitică Pricop and Florin Popescu, the latter of whom was runner-up at the 1998 and 1999 World and European championships respectively. This forced Germany into the semi-finals, which it won without too much difficulty, and then it was on to the finals, where the Romanians won gold with relative ease. Popescu and Pricop would go on to earn bronze in the C-2 500 the following day. Cuba came in for silver nearly a second and a half later, which would have been the nation’s first Olympic canoeing medal had Ledys Balceiro not been runner-up in the C-1 1000 less than two hours earlier. The battle for bronze between Russia and Germany, meanwhile, ended nearly four seconds after Romania had crossed the finish line, with the latter emerging victorious and the favorites off the podium entirely.