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Olympics: Germany win gold in two-man kayak over 500 meters

Chuck Penfold
August 9, 2024

Germany's Jacob Schopf and Max Lemke have won Olympic gold in the two-man kayak over 500 meters. Schopf narrowly missed out on gold in Tokyo three years ago.

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Jacob Schopf and Max Lemke in action in the 2-man kayak
Jacob Schopf and Max Lemke held off a challenge from the Hungarians and Australians to take the gold medalImage: Sebastian Kahnert/dpa/picture-alliance

Jacob Schopf and Max Lemke crossed the finish line with a time of 1:26.87, edging out Bence Nadas and Sandor Totka of Hungary, to claim the gold medal in the men's kayak double 500-meter final on Friday. Jean van der Westhuyzen and Tom Green of Australia took the bronze medal.

For Schopf, first place went some way to ease three years of hurt after he missed out on gold by a fraction of a second in the kayak double 1,000 meters in Tokyo.

"I remember Tokyo to this day," said Schopf. "I was a little nervous. But we got off to a good start, it was a perfect race." 

Lemke agreed that getting off the mark was key to winning gold in the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.

"We had the perfect start and a very good first 250 meters — we were so far ahead 250 meters after the start, so we were just thinking to bring it over the line, and we managed to do that," he said.

Schopf and Lemke, along with Max Rendschmidt and Tom Liebscher-Lucz, had already won gold in the four-man kayak 500-meter on Thursday.

Tom Liebscher-Lucz, Jacob Schopf, Max Lemke and Max Rendschmidt with their gold medals
Germany also took gold in the four-man kayak over 500 meters Image: Sebastian Kahnert/dpa/picture alliance

Rendschmidt and Liebscher-Lucz finished out of the medals in fifth place on Friday. 

Edited by: Kalika Mehta