Slovakia was the biggest winner on Sunday after it clinched both the men's canoe double (C2) and women's kayak single (K1) gold medals in China Open.

The twins Peter Hochschorner/Pavol Hochschorner finished the two outings at the C2's semifinal and final in 204.45 seconds, ahead of Frenchmen Cedric Forgit/Martin Braud and German Felix Michel/ Sebastian Piersig.

The double champion at the Sydney and Athens Olympics led the way into the semifinal and final by making an almost perfect performance at Saturday's heats and Sunday's semifinal.

"We feel great today and the race in the final is even 0.8 seconds faster than the semifinal," Peter said.

"We have no plan to celebrate our success. We will soon be busy preparing for the world championships in September and the Beijing Olympics after being qualified," he added.

Chinese crews Mai Jianmin/Mo Bin and Duan Junjie/Duan Junqing failed to enter the final after finishing seventh and eighth respectively in the semifinal.

"We didn't perform as well as in the heats. We were a little nervous for starting racing first among all 10 pairs," said Mai.

"Chinese athletes usually don't have very stable performance and that is our weakness compared with world's top paddlers," he added.

Slovakia's Jana Dukatova won the women's K1 gold medal, beating German Jasmin Schornberg and Chinese Li Jingjing to the second and third finishers.

Despite the championship, Dukatova was unsatisfied with her performance. "I made a couple of mistakes in the tough water course," she said.

"I hope I can win the gold medal here in next year's Beijing Games, but first I have to pass the qualifying events," said the world second ranked Slovakian.

Li Xin, team leader of the Chinese national canoe/kayak slalom team, hailed Li Jingjing's third place as a "historic breakthrough," although acknowledging that there was still much room for improvement.

The 2007 "Good Luck Beijing" Canoe/Kayak Slalom China Open, which kicked off on Thursday, has attracted 104 leading paddlers from 19 countries and regions. It is one of a series of test events for the Beijing Olympics.

Europe dominated the competition by grabbing all the four gold medals. On Friday German Nico Bettge and Frenchman Julien Billaut won the men's C1 and K1 gold medals respectively.

(Xinhua News Agency August 20,2007)