Australian pair Jean van der Westhuyzen and Tom Green have backed up their Olympic gold in Tokyo with a thrilling bronze in Paris.
In a photo finish, the Aussies crossed the line just marginally behind Germany and Hungary in the men’s K2 500m sprint on Friday night (AEST).
Their bronze is Australia’s 22nd-ever canoe sprint medal.
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“It might be three years after gold, but these two boys remain on the podium and among the absolute best in the world,” Shane McInnes said on commentary for Nine.
It’s the first time since Beijing 2008 that Australia has won multiple medals in the canoe sprint program.
Speaking to Nine after the race, Green said he was disappointed with the start but remained proud of their effort.
“We didn’t have the greatest start, I kind of stuffed up a little bit, so I’m a little bit unhappy with that,” he said.
“But at the end of the day, not a bad effort, we were still able to get on the podium. We’ve done a lot of work, so got to be happy with it.”
Earlier in the women’s 500m kayak double, Aussie pair Ella Beere and Aly Bull finished seventh in what was an epic race.
New Zealand legend Lisa Carrington and her partner Alicia Hoskin finished clearly first, but nearly every other position needed a photo to decide the order.
The athletes had to wait for a number of minutes while race officials determined the final results.
After a painfully long delay, the Hungarian pair of Tamara Csipes and Alida Dóra Gazsó were awarded silver.
Their bow was just centimetres ahead that of German pair Pauline Paszek and Jule Marie Hake’s, and of fellow Hungarian duo Noemi Pupp and Sára Fojt, who shared the bronze medal after a dead heat.
“We pinned our ears back, we had a good go at the start,” Bull told Nine after the race.
“It’s just super bouncy at the end, we tried to channel our surf skills and it didn’t quite come off, but we’re proud of ourselves for getting ourselves into that race.”
Beere added: “I’m really proud of us. We had a lot of fun out there and we just lapped up the crowd.
“We just pinned our ears back and went for it, but like ‘Bully’ said, the conditions were very choppy and we had to maintain composure through that.
“I think we did really well.”