Brabants claims K1 gold

Brabants, who took bronze at Sydney in the event and finished fifth at Athens, had a fast start and was pushed hard by Canada's Adam van Koeverden for much of the race.

Brabants started to pull away from the field before half way while van Koeverden dropped back in the field.

"No one was going to touch me today, I felt fantastic," he said.

"I went into the race knowing I was the strongest paddler. I had an excellent start and I knew from that moment no one is going to go past me."

Norway's Eirik Veraas Larsen, who won the event in Athens in 2004, took silver in a photo finish with Australia's Ken Wallace. Canada's van Koeverden, who won bronze in Athens, finally faded to eighth.

Australia's Wallace showed his colours earlier this week to win his semi-final ahead of a tough field and he has been tipped to follow in the footsteps of Australia's 1992 Olympic champion Clint Robinson.

Attila Vajda won Hungary's first gold of the Games in the men's canoe 1000m single and paid tribute to his friend and two-times Olympic champion Gyorgy Kolonics, who died in July while training for Beijing.

"He gave me tremendous strength and a will to fight," Vajda said.

"It was a tough race but he was with me throughout until the last 50. From there on, I didn't need him."

Germany and Hungary entered many of the crew events as joint favourites, but it was the Germans and surprise package Belarus who emerged triumphant on the day.

The German women's four stormed to victory in the 500 metre final to take their fourth consecutive title in the event, and Martin Hollstein and Andreas Ihle followed that up in the men's kayak double. But the final two races went to Belarus.

First the Bahdanovich brothers won the canoeing double after coming from behind to pip the Germans on the finish line, and the Belarussian four held on to win the final race of the day, in a shock to the Hungarians, who had won it in Athens and Sydney.

Germany's win in the women's four gave Fanny Fischer, niece of eight-times Olympic canoe champion Birgit Fischer, a gold medal but Germany's other medalled canoeist, Andreas Dittmer, failed in his bid for a fourth Olympic gold, finishing eighth in his canoe single final.

There was also pain for Germany's Thomasz Wylenzek, who was edged for gold by the Belarussian brothers, and failed to make the podium after being taken to hospital.

His partner, Christian Gille, said he was making a good recovery. Both Germans had earlier fallen into the water after rowing themselves to exhaustion and hitting their lane marker.

Age: 31 (date of birth: Jan 23, 1977)

Place of birth: Chertsey, Britain

Career achievements:

Gold medallist, 2007 World Championships, K1 1000m

Silver medallist, 2007 World Championships, K1 500m

Silver medallist, 2006 World Championships, K1 1000m

Gold medallist, 2008 European Championships, K1 1000m

Previous Olympic results:

Bronze medallist, 2000 Olympic Games, K1 1000m

Fifth place, 2004 Olympic Games, K1 1000m

Brabants, who is a doctor, is also an ambassador for the charity Right To Play, an athlete-driven international humanitarian organisation that aims to bring sport to children affected by war, poverty and disease.

His gold medal in the K1 1000m at the 2007 World Championships was the first world title won by a paddler representing Britain for 20 years.