Kayak Singles, 500 metres, Men

No one had taken the men’s K-1 500 title more than once at the European and World Championships since the last Olympics, leaving the field for the event at the 2008 Summer Games fairly open. The defending champion was Canada’s Adam Van Koeverden, who was also the reigning World Champion and the 2005 bronze medalist. The only other returning Olympic medalist was Israel’s Michael Kolganov, but his last major international medal in this discipline had come at the 1998 World Championships. Nonetheless he won his opening heat, as did Van Koeverden in world record time, while the other two were taken by Tim Brabants of Great Britain, the 2007 European champion and World runner-up, and Hungary’s Ákos Vereckei, the 2005 European champion. Van Koeverden also won his semi-final heat, while Brabants was third in a heat won by New Zealand’s Steven Ferguson. In the final heat, taken by 2005 European bronze medalist Stjepan Janić of Croatia, Vereckei came in third wihle Kolganov was eliminated. The final was an incredibly close an exciting race, with all nine competitors finishing within one and a half seconds, but the surprise winner was Ken Wallace of Australia, a relatively unknown canoeist who had won bronze in the K-1 1000 the day before. Van Koeverden and Brabants, meanwhile, came in for silver and bronze respectively, a second medal for the Briton who had won the K-1 1000 the previous day.