The last two final races of the "Good Luck Beijing" Canoe/Kayak Slalom Open ended on August 19, with Slovak stars the Hochschorner brothers and Jana Dukatova winning the men's C-2 and the women's K-1 respectively, repeating the scenes in yesterday's heats. Three of the six boats in the men's C-2 finals were from France, while China took a bronze in the women's K-1 event, the only medal for host team in the entire tournament.

Men's C-2

The Slovak twins Peter Hochschorner/Pavol Hochschorner received no time penalty in their races and with quick and neat movements they paddled away with the title in 204.45secs, a combined result from the semifinal and final races. Nevertheless, they thought they made some minor mistakes and were not fast enough in some sections on their way to the finish.

Coming home second was a French pair Cedric Forgit/Martin Braud, who placed fourth in last year's World Championships. They got no time penalty just as their German counterparts Felix Michel/Sebastian Piersig did, but they were much faster than the Germany duo with a two-race total of 208.47secs. The Germans had to be content with a third place with 215.19secs.

The French twin brothers Christophe Luquet/Piere Luquet experienced ups and downs in today's racing. Ranking second after the heats, they finished sixth in the semifinals and were almost eliminated. Howewver, they managed to come from behind to settle for a fourth place in the finals.

Placing fifth was another French pair, Damien roquenet/Mathieu Voyemant, who helped bring one more French boat into the finals, followed by the Australian team Mark Bellofiore/Lachlan Milne.

The two Chinese pairs Duan Junjie/Duan Junqing and Mai Jianmin/Mo Bin and veterans Marek Jiras/Tomas Mader of Czech Republic were all knocked out of the finals.

Women's K-1

After the readjustment of gate setting in the semifinals today, Slovakia's world champion Jana Dukatova seemed rather cautious and made no mistake on either run to secure her leading position with a two-run total of 218.24secs, merely 0.31sec faster than the runner up Jasmin Schornberg of Germany, who got a penalty of two seconds. Jana Dukatova was blaming herself for making too many errors only to find that her opponents had made even more mistakes than her. As luck would have it, she won the gold medal before she knew it.

China's Li Jingjing, who finished second in the semifinals and sixth in the finals, placed third with a total time of 225.11secs. As she touched five gates on two runs she got 10 seconds added to her result, brought her down. However, she was still happy to win China's first medal in women's canoe/kayak slalom racing.

Another two Chinese kayakists also participated in today's semifinals, but while 16-year-old Zhou Yingying was eliminated Li Tong finished seventh.

Among the three French semifinalists two qualified for the finals. While Mathilde Pichery finished fourth, her younger teammate, 20-year-old Elisa Venet, finished 10th.

Marcela Sadilova, a 40-year-old veteran from Czech Republic, finished ninth in the finals.

During the four-day Canoe/Kayak Slalom Open held at Beijing's Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, the local spectators showed great interest in the spectacular scenes brought by the world's top paddlers in this future Olympic course. While the athletes and officials enjoyed their participation in the Beijing event, the local organizers won praises from the International Canoe Federation, the governing body of the sport, for redoubling their efforts to make the event a great success.