Germany's Sebastian Brendel wins canoe 1000m sprint

WINDSOR: Sebastian Brendel of Germany won Olympic gold in the men's 1,000-meter C-1 on Wednesday, adding to the titles he captured at the last three European championships.

Brendel took charge of the second half of the race to win in a time of 3 minutes, 47.176 seconds. David Cal Figueroa of Spain was nearly a second behind to take silver and Mark Oldershaw of Canada won bronze.

Brendel, at age 24 the youngest man in the final, only made it to the London Games through final qualifying - he had originally missed out after his paddle broke during the heats of last year's world championship in Szeged, Hungary.

Mathieu Goubel of France had been the quickest qualifier from the semifinals but he faded from contention in the final 250 meters.