Canadian Singles, 1,000 metres, Men

Sebastian Brendel of Germany was the defending Olympic Champion in the Men’s C-1 1000, as well as the 2014 and 2015 World and 2014, 2015, and 2016 European Champion, marking him as the man to beat in Rio. The Czech Republic’s Martin Fuksa was a potential contender, as the 2014 and 2015 World runner-up, the 2013 European Champion, and the 2016 European bronze medallist, while Serghei Tarnovschi, formerly of Ukraine but now competing for Moldova, was the only other recent World Champion medallist (having won bronze in 2015) at the Games.

Brendel and Tarnovschi won their preliminaries, allowing them to advance to the final directly, but Fuksa was bested by Brazil’s Isaquias Queiroz, the reigning Pan-American Champion. This forced him to compete in the semifinals, which he won alongside Russia’s Ilya Shtokalov. The final, however, was a two-man showdown between Brendel and Queiroz, but the Brazilian could not match the German’s prowess and was forced to settle for silver. Nonetheless, this made him Brazil’s first Olympic canoeing medallist and he would go on to take bronze in the C-1 200 and silver in the C-2 1000 to become the first Brazilian to win three medals in a single Olympics. Over two seconds later, Tarnovschi edged out Shtokalov to capture the final podium spot. Two days later, however, Tarnovschi’s placement was suspended after he failed a doping test - although the IOC later reinstated him pending an International Canoe Federation hearing. In February 2017 he was given a four year ban by that organization and stripped of all his results since July 8. Shtokalov was upgraded to the bronze medal, which he received on 10 September 2018 at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.

Another notable competitor was Mussa Chamaune who finished last and over a minute later than the heat leader in both of his runs, but nonetheless earned distinction as Mozambique’s first Olympic canoeist, although Joaquim Lobo would also compete two days later.