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Slovakia and Spain divide last two gold in canoe slalom competition of Olympic Games

Xinhua, August 12, 2016 Adjust font size:

Slovakia took the gold in the men's C2 while Spain won the women's K1 in the canoe slalom competition of the 2016 Olympic Games here on Thursday.

Slovakia's brothers Peter Skantar and Ladislav Skantar finished the race in 101.58 seconds to win the gold. Britain and France took silver and bronze, respectively in 102.01 and 103.24 seconds.

Slovakia has now won its eighth gold medal at the Olympic Games and all these eight gold medals have been won in canoe slalom. And Slovakia has now won men's C2 at four of the last five Games.

"We started when we were eight years old. From the beginning it was quite clear that we would do double canoeing. The first person who got us to start was actually my father. We come from a very small village and there were actually only two possibilities: to play football or go for double canoeing. We decided to go for this one and our father was always supporting us, " said Ladislav Skantar.

David Florence/Richard Hounslow took silver and Florence became the first athlete to win three silver medals in canoe slalom.

"I am very happy to compete. I spent a lot of time here in Rio de Janeiro and I am really proud of the result I achieved and the medal I am taking home," Florence commented.

"I am still loving canoeing. It's a shame that it looks likely C2 will be not with us in the next Olympics but I am keen to keep paddling, I'm not about to retire and I love training. I love the sport and obviously it (the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games) is a long, long way away at the minute and it's a massive challenge just to get to any Olympics," he added.

Gauthier Klauss/Mathieu Peche took bronze. It was France's fourth medal in this event.

Maialen Chourraut from Spain won the gold medal in the women's K1. Luuca Jones from New Zealand and Jessica Fox from Australia settled for silver and bronze.

Chourraut said: "For me this is what I've been looking for since a long time ago. For my family it is a reward for all the nerves and emotion they have felt. I have been working every day, taking it step-by-step in order to get to this point and to this place of winning the Olympic gold medal."

All the competition of canoe slalom have been concluded with the rest two gold going to France in the men's C1 and Britain in the men's K1. Endit