Kayak Doubles, 500 metres, Men

Germany’s Ronald Rauhe and Tim Wieskötter had not lost a major international event since the 2000 Summer Olympics and were the overwhelming favorites to take gold at the 2008 Games. They had little trouble in winning their opening heat, but were then dealt a surprising defeat in the final by Spain’s Saúl Craviotto and Carlos Pérez, whose only major international success had been silver at the 2008 European championships. Thus, by a margin of only 0.091 seconds, the German pair suffered their first major defeat in eight years, while Belarus’ Roman Petrushenko and Vadim Makhnyov, third at the 2004 Olympics, grabbed another bronze medal 0.28 seconds ahead of Hungary’s Gábor Kucsera and Zoltán Kammerer, the latter of whom was an Olympic champion from 2000. The Belarusians would go on to become Olympic champions in the K-4 1000 later that day.