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In a kayak race, the first ever Olympic medal for Togo
By Peter Berlin Published: August 12, 2008
SHUNYI, China: As Benjamin Boukpeti swept across the finish line of the Olympic whitewater course at the end of the men's single kayak final Tuesday, he smashed his double-bladed paddle across the bow of his boat.
For a moment it seemed like a gesture of frustration. Boukpeti had led, by one hundredth of a second, after the semifinals, and ended up in third.
But then he raised the two splinters of wood, one in each massive fist, in an unambiguous gesture of triumph. Boukpeti's bronze represented a victory of sorts. It was the first-ever Olympic medal for Togo.
Boukpeti learned his sport in France. But after he failed to make its team, he competed for Togo in Athens, where he finished 18th. That, according to the official Olympic Web site, was "arguably" Togo's "best ever" Olympic result.
After a faultless first run in the semifinals Tuesday, he became the first African, of any color, to make the final of an Olympic slalom race.
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In the semifinal, Warwick Draper, an Australian ranked 30th in the world, punched the air with his paddle as he crossed the line with a time of 86.09 seconds with no penalties. He celebrated too soon.
Two paddlers later came Boukpeti in 86.08. He looked faintly bemused.
Neither was the fastest racer. Peter Kauzer, a Slovak and the highest-ranked man in the race, completed the course in 85.42 seconds, but touched two gates, and the four seconds in penalties dropped him to 13th. Only the top 10 men, Boukpeti included, advanced.
In the final, only 1.23 seconds separated the top four men. Alexander Grimm, a German, fourth after the semifinals, hardly put a paddle wrong as he danced through the gates, making the battle with angry waves seem effortless. He finished in 84.39, the best time of the afternoon by more than a second.
Fabien Lefèvre, racing for France, also found a good line and jumped to second with a time of 86.09 for a cumulative 173.30. Draper was battered by the waves and had dropped out of contention, so Boukpeti started his run knowing that barring a mistake, a medal was his. He avoided touching any gates and finished 0.15 seconds behind Lefèvre.
In the men's single canoe, Michal Martikan knew that revenge was his even before he started to paddle in the final of men's whitewater canoeing.
This was the Slovak's fourth Olympics. In three previous finals he had only lost to one man, but he had lost to that man twice. Martikan won the gold at 17 in Atlanta in 1996.
But four years later in Sydney, he was edged by Tony Estanguet, a Frenchman who has never placed higher than 13th in the world championships. In the intervening years, Martikan continued to win world titles, but in Athens in 2004, Martikan was adjudged to have touched a gate in the final. The 2-second penalty dropped him 12 hundredths of a second behind Estanguet, who collected a second gold.
But the course in Shunyi, which drops 5.2 meters over its curving, roiling length of 280 meters, or 920 feet, favored the lighter, smaller, more technical paddler. And at 1.70 meters, or 5-foot-7, and 73 kilograms, or 161 pounds, Martikan is 15 centimeters shorter and 2 kilograms lighter than Estanguet.
In the semifinals, Estanguet lost the upstream battle on the first red gate, losing speed and touching a pole, which cost him two seconds.
He never made up the deficit and finished 9th among the 12 semifinalists. Only the top 8 go through to the final.
Standing barefoot on the grass and facing the massed French media, Estanguet said he could not explain his struggles on this course.
"This course is not for me," he said. "It's technical and very, very different. I don't know what it is. If I did I'd be in the final."
Martikan had no such problem. He finished the semifinal in the lead despite a two-second penalty.
In the final, one rival after another foundered in the Dragon's Mouth. Only David Florence of Britain came through unscathed, but Martikan started the final run knowing he could paddle almost three seconds slower than in the first run and still win.
Where Estanguet could find no rhythm, Martikan's boat danced, skipping through the waves. Only another penalty made it close. He finished in 176.65 seconds overall, 1.96 seconds ahead of Florence.
"It was really fast," Martikan said, but then, with a laugh, said he was not happy that he had incurred a penalty.
"This is the most difficult artificial course in the word," Martikan said, looking ahead to a fifth Olympics. "I hope they build a better one for London."
