Again, the European paddlers dominated the Olympic canoeing slalom event. They swept four gold medals, won three silver and two bronze.
Three gold in the men's canoe single (C1) and canoe double (C2), and women's kayak single (K1) went to Slovakia, and one in the men's K1 to Germany.
On Tuesday, Michal Martikan regained the men's C1 title, 12 years after he won his first Olympic gold in Atlanta and Alexander Grimm won the men's K1 gold.
On Friday, the powerful twin brothers Pavol and Peter Hochschorner, Olympic champions in Sdyney and Athens, won the unprecedented third slalom Olympic gold in the men's C2. Elena Kaliska claimed her second Olympic gold in the women's K1.
Australia won silver in the women's K1 and bronze in the men's C1. Togo took bronze in the men's K1, its first-ever Olympic medal.
But Togo's Benjamin Boukpeti should by no means be counted as an non-European. He was born and raised in France and has only visited the western African country once. He chose to represent Togo because his father was from there and the selection in France was hard.
China's efforts to break the dominance on the home water also came in vain. Its medal hopes, the men's C2 team of Hu Minghai and Shu Junrong, and the women's kayaker Li Jingjing, failed to make finals after incurring heavy penalties for missing gates.
Li and the C2 team finished second and third in the heats and had looked very likely to win the host nation's first-ever slalom Olympic medal.
Europe's domination would be more prominent if the International Canoe Federation (ICF) allowed all the top paddlers to compete in the Olympics.
ICF President, Ulrich Feldhoff, acknowledged on Thursday that many top paddlers who were able to make final in the Olympics had to stay at home because each country was allowed to send at most one boat in each category.
"About 75 percent of the athletes qualified by performances, and 25 percent qualified by enthusiasm," said Feldhoff. "We have to strive a balance at the Olympics, as it's no European Championships."
Though no break of Europe's dominance was foreseen in the near future, ICF would happy to see more emerging powers in the white water sport, ICF Slalom Committee chairperson, Jean-Michel Prono, told a briefing on Thursday.
"We'd be happy to see the six medals (men's C2, women's K1) shared by six different countries. it's a good signal of the vigor of the sport," said Prono. "The most nations share the medals, the most we get people involved into the sport. That's our goal."
(Xinhua News Agency August 15, 2008)