Kayak Singles, 500 metres, Men

Bulgaria’s Petar Merkov and Israel’s Michael Kolganov, silver and bronze respectively at the 2000 Summer Games, were the only former Olympic medalists to compete at the 2004 edition. They had seen only limited success at major international tournaments since, however, with Merkov having been the runner-up at the 2002 European and World Championships and Kolganov having been the 2001 European silver medalist. Nathan Baggaley of Australia, the 2002 and 2003 World Champion, had seen more success, as had Ákos Vereckei, the 2001, 2002, and 2004 European and 2001 World Champion. Argentina’s Javier Correa, meanwhile, was a two-time victor at the Pan American Games and had been the 2001 World bronze medalist.

It was Norway’s Eirik Verås Larsen, however, a specialist at 1000 metres, who set an Olympic record in the opening heats and defeated Baggaley and Kolganov in the process. Vereckei and Merkov, meanwhile, fell to Great Britain’s Ian Wynne, the 2004 European runner-up, while Correa was bested by Canada’s Adam Van Koeverden. South Africa’s Alan van Coller took the fourth heat. Baggaley led the pack for the first half of the final, but Van Koeverden was constantly on his tail and, at the halfway mark, initiated a charge that took him past the Australian and into the history books as Canada’s first Olympic canoeing champion in twenty years. Baggaley grabbed silver just over half a second later, staving off challenges from Wynne and Larsen, who finished 0.08 and 0.2 seconds later respectively. Van Koeverden thus added gold to the bronze medal he had won the day before in the K-1 1000, while Baggaley would go on to take silver again in the K-2 500 about an hour later.