The first-day competition of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 Canoe/Kayak Slalom Open was staged on August 23. In the men's C-1 500m heats Group B held this afternoon, Yang Wenjun, winner of the men's C-2 500m at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, finished second with a time of 1:59.620, or 0.274 second behind the first-place finisher Aliakasandr Zhukouski of Belarus.

After the race Yang appeared not quite satisfied with his performance. He attributed the result to his bad form and the wind direction. "It was quite hard for me to go against the wind," he said.

Yang said he gained the lead position in the first 300 meters only to be overtaken by his opponent due to inferior physical strength. In fact, he timed 59.45 for the first 250 meters, or 0.79sec faster than Aliakasandr Zhukouski of Belarus. When asked whether he had purposely reserved his strength for the elimination rounds like many others did, Yang admitted it was true, but he had meant to score some good result right before the finals.

The Beijing open tournament held in the same month of the 2008 Olympic Games was regarded by many top paddlers as a good opportunity to get familiar with the venue and local weather. As the 2007 World Championships were just over, many paddlers were not in form, and so was Yang Wenjun, who took the competition just as an Olympic warm-up.