China's Xu/Sun win women's canoe double 500m gold at Paris Olympics

PARIS -- China's Xu Shixiao and Sun Mengya successfully defended their title in the women's canoe double 500m final at the Paris Olympics here on Friday.

The pair clocked an Olympic best of one minute and 52.81 seconds to win, 1.49 seconds ahead of Ukraine's Liudmyla Luzan and Anastasiia Rybachok. The bronze medal went to Canada's Sloan Mackenzie and Katie Vincent, who finished in 1:54.36.

Sun said after the race, "We were really determined to get this gold. From the Tokyo Olympics to now, from the start line to the finish line, we just tried to be the best."

"I believe that if we can further improve ourselves after the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, we can make a success in Paris," the 32-year-old Xu added. "We also prepared to break the world best time in the final, but failed to achieve that due to the heavy wind today, which posed challenges for us, especially for my partner's side."

In the men's canoe single 1,000m, Czech Republic's Martin Fuksa claimed the gold in an Olympic best of 3:43.16, followed by Isaquias Queiroz of Brazil and Moldova's Serghei Tarnovschi in second and third place, respectively.

"I have many medals from European and world championships, and now I finally have an Olympic medal, and it is gold," said Fuksa, who ranked fifth in the event at both the Rio and Tokyo Games.

Also on Friday, Lisa Carrington and Alicia Hoskin of New Zealand clinched the women's kayak double 500m title, while the men's kayak double 500m gold was claimed by the German pair Jacob Schoph and Max Lemke.