CANOE/KAYAK ROUNDUP

updated 10:43 a.m. ET Aug. 28, 2004

SCHINIAS, Greece - A budding Hungarian star paddled to two gold medals barely an hour apart, preventing 42-year-old Birgit Fischer from adding another to her already impressive cache.

Fischer took the silver after she and her German partner watched Natasa Janics and Katalin Kovacs cruise past them in the last half of Saturday’s 500-meter kayak final. Poland got bronze.

“I’m not at all disappointed,” said Fischer, who came out of retirement a year ago. “At 42 years old, what else can you expect — and I didn’t train as long as the others.”

Fischer’s silver was her fourth, and 12th overall medal, since she started competing for former East Germany.

It was a career day for Janics, 22, who wasn’t even born when Fischer won the first of her eight gold medals in Moscow in 1980. Janics won the 500-meter single kayak race only 70 minutes before her pairs showdown with her sport’s all-time greatest athlete.

Janics said she was confident despite the short rest and the fact that Fischer, a day earlier, had won her eighth gold medal in Germany’s four-person kayak.

“She is a great competitor, but we made very good times in training and I didn’t feel that she would beat me — or I was hoping she would not beat me,” Janics said.

Like Fischer, Janics made her Olympic debut at 18 in the single, finishing fourth in Sydney.

Fischer and teammate Carolin Leonhardt paddled over to Kovacs and Janics to exchange congratulatory kisses, then the victors paddled past a grandstand brimming with flag-waving, drum-beating, singing Hungarians.

Janics continued celebrating after her boat docked, jumping into the water.

She was nearly as exuberant after her earlier victory over defending champion Josefa Idem of Italy, who finished second, and two-time silver medalist Caroline Brunet of Canada, who finished third.

“I wanted to jump in the water after my K-1, but I knew I had to be ready for another race,” she said.

Janics and Fischer just might race again. Fischer hasn’t ruled out trying to compete in Beijing in 2008.

“I don’t want to cause any fear with anybody, but I will decide next year. Nobody can say what they will do in four years,” Fischer said.

In other races, Germany’s Andreas Dittmer got revenge against new rival David Cal of Spain, who had upset him a day earlier in Dittmer’s best event, the 1,000-meter single canoe.

Dittmer refused to let Cal get an insurmountable lead in the 500-meter final and pulled ahead at the end to defeat the 21-year-old Cal by .34 seconds. Russia’s Maxim Opalev took bronze.

“Yesterday I was angry because I was second. I tried to calm down and make a new effort today,” Dittmer said. “Towards the end of the race I was sure I could make it.”

It was Dittmer’s first Olympic gold at 500 meters. He arrived in Greece as defending gold medalist and three-time defending world champion at 1,000 meters. Dittmer now has three gold medals, his first coming in the pairs 1,000 at Atlanta.

Canadian single kayaker Adam van Koeverden took his second medal of these games — this one a gold in the 500-meter final. A day earlier, van Koeverden had been first halfway through the 1,000-meter race, but finished third.

In the 500-meter pairs kayak, Germany’s Ronald Rauhe and Tim Wieskoetter pulled out to an early lead and won handily, while three squads finished within .12 seconds of each other for second place. Australia ended up with the silver and Belarus the bronze.

The Chinese pair of Guanliang Meng and Wenjun Yang delivered a surprise victory in a race that had five canoes crossing the line in a photo finish.

Officials didn’t release the result until most competitors were out of their canoes and on the dock. The Chinese tandem raised their arms and then, as if in disbelief, asked several officials if they had really won their country’s first gold in canoe racing.

Canoe/Kayak - Women's K-2, 500M (medals: Aug. 28th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Katalin Kovacs, Natasa Janics Hungary 1:38.101 Silver Birgit Fischer, Carolin Leonhardt Germany 1:39.533 Bronze Aneta Pastuszka, Beata Sokolowska Poland 1:40.077 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

Canoe/Kayak - Men's C-2, 500M (medals: Aug. 28th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Meng Guanliang, Yang Wenjun China 1:40.278 Silver Ibrahim Rojas Blanco, Ledis Frank Balceiro Pajon Cuba 1:40.350 Bronze Alexander Kostoglod, Alexander Kovalev Russia 1:40.442 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

Canoe/Kayak - Men's K-2, 500M (medals: Aug. 28th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Ronald Rauhe, Tim Wieskoetter Germany 1:27.040 Silver Clint Robinson, Nathan Baggaley Australia 1:27.920 Bronze Raman Piatrushenka, Vadzim Makhneu Belarus 1:27.996 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

Canoe/Kayak - Women's K-1, 500M (medals: Aug. 28th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Natasa Janics Hungary 1:47.741 Silver Josefa Idem Italy 1:49.729 Bronze Caroline Brunet Canada 1:50.601 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

Canoe/Kayak - Men's K-1, 500M (medals: Aug. 28th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Adam van Koeverden Canada 1:37.919 Silver Nathan Baggaley Australia 1:38.467 Bronze Ian Wynne Britain 1:38.547 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results

Canoe/Kayak - Men's C-1, 500M (medals: Aug. 28th) Medal Athlete Country Result Gold Andreas Dittmer Germany 1:46.383 Silver David Cal Spain 1:46.723 Bronze Maxim Opalev Russia 1:47.767 NBCO: Schedules, preliminary result and complete final results