The first event to start was the C2-500m, in which China’s Hao Liu and Ji Bowen secured the gold medal with a total time of 1:39:48. The Italian duo of Gabriele Casadei and Carlo Tacchini claimed the silver, while the bronze went to the Spanish pair Diego Dominguez and Joan Moreno. A photo finish was crucial in determining these two positions.

Liu and Bowen reached the final after setting the best Olympic time during the qualifying rounds. The race was closely contested from the very first strokes, although the Chinese pair quickly established a lead over their pursuers, maintaining an undeniable superiority from start to finish.

The suspense was always just behind China. The Casadei-Tacchini duo staged a spectacular comeback, overtaking Hungary for second place at the 250-metre mark. The Spanish pair crossed this point in fourth, well-positioned for the final sprint and always close to the front of the race. The Russian neutral team was in third at that moment, but the final effort from the Spaniards paid off, allowing them to move up a place.

Aside from the champions, the race was so tight that the judges had to rely on photo finish images to determine the other medallists. Italy secured silver in the last sprint, edging out the Spanish by just 0.20 seconds, with only 0.11 seconds separating Moreno and Dominguez from the fourth-place finishers. It was a nail-biter.

"We have received a very warm welcome, which has given us a good incentive to perform well. In Tokyo, I won two silver medals, so winning the gold means a lot to me, and it’s also very important for my country. It’s compensation for what I’ve done so far. I always believe that I have the power to win. We have a great team, and everyone worked very hard to make sure we put everything in until the end,” Liu said after the victory.

Tacchini, for his part, confessed, "It's an indescribable feeling; we have beaten crews like the German and Russian ones, whom we didn’t think we could challenge. They didn’t make it to the podium, and we came second. It’s truly amazing." Dominguez stated that he and his teammate had been “training to prepare the boat since October of last year” and that “when there is power and quality, things go well.” “During the last 150 metres, we increased the pace and overtook several competitors. At that moment, we thought we were going to catch them, and that’s exactly what happened.”

With this title, China secured its third gold in this Olympic discipline, following victories at the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and it established itself as one of the great powers in this sport. 

The women's K4-500 event broke the dominance

The next final of the day was the women's K4 500 metres competition. On this occasion, the gold medal was claimed by the New Zealand team of Lisa Carrington, Alicia Hoskin, Olivia Brett, and Tara Vaughan, bringing an end to the duopoly held by Germany and Hungary since Seoul 1988.

The New Zealand athletes crossed the finish line with a time of 1:32.20. They were followed by the Germans, who had to settle for silver with a time of 1:32.62, narrowly edging out the Hungarians by 0.31 seconds, whose hopes of securing a fourth consecutive title in the event were dashed as they took bronze.

Known as "The GOAT (Greatest of All Time) in the boat," Carrington and her crew had to dig deep in a thrilling race to keep the Germans at bay. The Kiwi crew got off to a quick start and were ahead at the halfway mark, but the Germans briefly took the lead. However, Carrington, seated at the front of the boat, increased the pace in a frantic sprint over the final 100 metres to claim the top spot on the podium.

This victory marked Carrington's sixth Olympic medal, equalling the gold tally of Sweden's Gert Fredriksson and Hungary's Danuta Kozák. Only Germany's Birgit Fischer leads this ranking with more titles. "This one is pretty special -- to do it with these girls, the amount of work that we have all put in is pretty special," an elated Carrington said. "You never know what the end result is going to be when you line up and I think that is why sport is so thrilling. It's such a privilege to be out there with the best in the world and they bring out the best in us."

A men's quadruple kayak with a photo finish

The final canoeing event at the Paris Games featured the men's K4-500m category. One year after posting one of their worst results as a crew, the German kayak four made history in Paris on Thursday by becoming the first men’s team in Olympic Canoe Sprint history to win three gold medals in a row.

The quartet, consisting of Max Rendschmidt, Max Lemke, Jacob Schopf, and Tom Liebscher-Lucz, finished just 0.04 seconds ahead of the fast Australian team, who took silver, narrowly ahead of Spain. The race was filled with suspense until the very last moment, as a photo finish was needed to determine the champion. The result produces an incredible stat: Rendschmidt secured his fourth Olympic gold in the event and has now won all of his Olympic races (including heats) since Rio 2016.

The Germans' progress has been remarkable, considering they had just finished a disappointing fifth place in last year's European Games. After that race, the team faced a choice: change personnel or simply rearrange the seating. They opted for the latter, and the rest is history.

“People looking from the outside don’t understand, if you change just one person in the boat you have a completely new boat,” Rendschmidt said. “We had some very tough years, World Cups where we didn’t win medals, and the European Games were not pleasant for us. But it was there that we realised the path we had chosen wasn’t the right one, and we had to make a change.”