Spanish Saul Craviotto expands his legacy at the Olympic Games

Vaires-sur-MarneThe Spanish canoeing team in Paris 2024 won two bronze medals this Thursday in the C2-500 m and K4-500 m events, the latter of which saw Saúl Craviotto become the most successful Iberian athlete at the Olympic Games.

Accompanied by Marcus Cooper, Carlos Arévalo and Rodrigo Germade, the 39-year-old kayaker added his sixth Olympic medal by crossing the finish line in third place, behind Germany and Australia, gold and silver respectively.

“More than the number of medals, what I value most about my career is having been in Beijing, London, Rio, Tokyo and Paris, in so many Olympic Games. There are many years between cycles and being up there is what I value most about my sporting career,” she said in the mixed zone.

Craviotto won gold in Beijing 2008 (K2-500 m) and silver in London 2012 (K1-200 m) before adding two medals in Rio-2016: gold in K2-200 m and bronze in K1-200 m.

Three years ago, with the silver medal in Tokyo 2020, he equalled paddler David Cal as the Spaniard with the greatest number of Olympic medals (5) and this Thursday, in his fifth Games, he surpassed the Galician, now retired, in the list of winners.

“What I would like to leave behind is that I am a constant and combative guy,” added Craviotto, “very happy” for the medal and without closing the door on continuing to compete.

Spain started off strong on Thursday, leading the race, but halfway through the race the Germans, reigning world and Olympic champions, closed the gap and reached the finish line tied with the Australians.

The photo finish gave gold to the Germans with a time of 1:19.80, four hundredths faster than Australia (1:19.84).

This photo finish was also necessary in the C2-500 m final to confirm the bronze of canoeists Diego Domínguez and Joan Moreno.

In their race, Chinese Liu Hao and Ji Bowen were the clear winners and the only ones to breathe a sigh of relief after crossing the finish line.

After several seconds of tension, the photo finish gave silver to the Italians (1:41.08) and a provisional bronze to the Hungarians… but a few seconds later, the final result was corrected and placed the Spaniards on the third step of the podium (1:41.18).

“It has been a very, very tough year, where few people believed in us, but from the beginning we set out to be here and dream of this medal. This is the icing on the cake for a dream, for our Olympic debut,” said a smiling and hoarse Domínguez in the mixed zone.

The Brazilian duo formed by four-time Olympic medalist Isaquias Queiroz and his partner Jacky Jamael Nascimento finished last in the final (1:42.58).

In the women’s K4-500m event, the Spanish boat failed to win a medal and finished in sixth position. New Zealand took gold, Germany silver and Hungary bronze.

Sara Ouzande, Estefanía Fernández, Carolina García and Teresa Portela, who had qualified directly for the final on Monday, were unable to win medals, after winning bronze at the last 2023 World Cup.

The women’s C1-200m heats and quarter-finals also took place on Thursday, with Spaniards María Corberá and Antía Jácome, Chileans María Mailliard and Karen Roco, Cuban Yarisleidis Cirilo and Brazilian Valdenice Conceinçao making it through to the semi-finals.