The event, which was the last Canoe Sprint World Cup of the season, suggested that there will be fierce competition for the men's K1 200 metre gold medal at London 2012 after Cesar de Cesare of Ecuador narrowly held off Russia's Maxim Molochkov and current world champion Piotr Siemionowski of Poland, who took second and third place respectively.

Jenni Mikkonen of Finland also showed her class to take gold in the hotly contested women's K1 200m final ahead of Russia's Natalia Lobova and Natalia Podolskaya.

Azerbaijan's Andriy Kraytor struck gold in the C1 200m with Lithuania's Jevgenij Shuklin taking silver and Alexandr Kostoglod of Russia claiming bronze.

In the men's C2 200m final, Lithuanians Raimundas Labuckas (pictured below, front) and Tomas Gadeikis (pictured below, back) secured victory ahead of Brazilian duo Erlon De Souza Silva and Ronilson Matias De Oliveira, whose defeat was the surprise of the event.


"Everything went according to our plan from the beginning," said De Oliveira.

"We were expecting first place but we are happy with our performance.

"We are very fast and we are explosive but we need to work on our strength a bit more to have more force."

Canada's Mark Oldershaw bought the event to a conclusion by winning the C1 500m with Russia's Pavel Petrov taking second place and Iran's Adel Foumani picking up bronze.

Next up on the ICF Event Calendar is the Cardiff World Cup, the first Canoe Slalom World Cup, which begins tomorrow although attention will now be turning to London 2012 with the Olympics Games now just 50 days away.

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