Olympics | China's Liu/Ji win men's canoe double 500m gold at Paris 2024

PARIS, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's Liu Hao and Ji Bowen claimed the men's canoe double 500m gold medal at the Paris Olympics here on Thursday.

The pair clocked one minute and 39.48 seconds, ahead of Italy's Gabriele Casadei and Carlo Tacchini who took the silver in 1:41.08. The bronze went to Joan Antoni Moreno and Diego Dominguez of Spain, who finished in 1:41.18.

Fresh from achieving an Olympic best result in a heat on Tuesday in 1:37.40, Liu and Ji led all the way in the final.

30-year-old Liu had become China's first canoe sprint paddler to win two medals at a single Olympics at Tokyo 2020, where he narrowly missed the gold of men's canoe 1,000m with a time gap of barely 0.203 seconds.

"I have been training so hard just for this moment," said an emotional Liu after Thursday's victory.

"We were relaxed because we had been in the leading position all the way," said Ji, the 22-year-old Olympic debutant. "We felt we were full of strength."

The event requires a high degree of understanding and cooperation between the teammates. Discussing the secret of their success, Liu said it was "trust".

"We trust and support each other unconditionally," he noted.

The Italian canoeists were in seventh position after the first 250m, but managed to catch up and overtake the other teams in the second half.

"We knew the C2 is always high level, but we also knew that C2 500m is always a very close race, so you can be on or off the podium by a tenth of a second. So, what we wanted was to be in perfect shape to be with the top guys," said Tacchini.

"There were a lot of waves for some reason, so at that moment we lost balance, but then I think everyone felt it, so maybe we dealt with it a little better than the other crews," he said.

The Spanish duo, both first-time Olympians, were happy to receive a bronze after an intense race.

"When our name was showing on the screens, it was an explosion of emotions. It will stay forever in our minds for all of our lives," said Dominguez.