Hungary's Katalin Kovacs and Natasa Janic retained the Olympic title in the women's kayak double 500 meters at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park?on Saturday.

Katalin Kovacs and Natasa Janic of Hungary compete in the women's kayak double (K2) 500m final at Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the Shunyi Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing, China, Aug. 23, 2008. They won the gold medal. [Jiang Enyu/Xinhua]

The duo, who took world titles in 2005 and 2006, finished in one minute 41.308 seconds, 0.784 seconds ahead of Beata Mikolajczyk and Aneta Konieczna of Poland. Marie Delattre and Anne-Laure Viard of France took bronze in 1:42.128.

Reigning world champions Fanny Fischer and Nicole Reinhardt of Germany finished in fourth place. They won the gold medal in the women's K4 500m on Friday.

The win made Janic become the first Hungarian woman to win three Olympic gold medals in kayaking. She was the gold medalist in the K1 and K2500m races in Athens.

"It ended very well," said the 26-year-old. "Kovacs finished fourth in the K1 event and without this win we would be very sad."

In the kayak four final on Friday, the two Hungarians finished second to the German team that included Fanny Fischer and Nicole Reinhardt.

"All I recall after the K1 is that I didn't manage to achieve what I used to. I didn't feel well during the warm-up, and felt tense during the race," Kovacs, 32, said of her failure to win gold in the K1 and K4 races.

The Polish crew, who won a pre-Games World Cup in Poznan, broke down in tears with the second finish.

"Yesterday we cried when we came fourth (in K4), and now we cry because we've got the silver," said Poland's Mikolajczyk.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2008)