Today saw the finals of six events in the "Good Luck Beijing" 2007 Canoe/Kayak Flatwater Open. The German team raced off the first prize in the women's K-4 500m final. The Chinese team got the bronze.

The four paddlers on the German team, namely Carolin, Conny, Maren and Katrin, champions in the 2007 Duisburg World Championships, showed absolute superiority in this event and thus their winning the gold was within expectation. 

After winning the title the girls were very excited. "We'll hold a small party to celebrate our win this evening." "You know we Germans like beer. The Yanjing Beer here is great and we can drink to our hearts' content now that the race is over."

The Chinese team composed of Yu Lamei, Wang Feng, He Jing and Yang Yali placed third with a time 1.828 seconds slower than that of the German team. As China's head coach from Germany Mützenmacher Secker Joseph commented, "Our gap with the German team in the past was nearly 4 seconds, and now it has been reduced to 1.6 to 1.7 seconds. There's still one year before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games and I believe that our paddlers will make constant improvement to catch up with the world's top teams."