Australian Ken Wallace won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in the men's kayak single (K1) 500m held in Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park on Saturday.

Date of birth: 26 July 1983

Place of birth: Gosford, Australia

Gender: male

Weight: 91 kg

Height: 190cm

Career:

He started paddling at the age of 16 in Currumbin Creek on the Gold Coast with Germany's 1992 Olympic Games gold medallist Mario von Appen.

He won the bronze medal in the K1 500m at Poznan, Poland, this year with a result of 1:36.088.

He won the fifth and fourth places in the K1 1000m at 2006 World Championship in Szeged of Hungary and in the 2007 World Championship at Duisburg, Germany respectively.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2008)