ACOG - News - IBM

(28 July 1996; Day 9)

ADISSON and FORGUES Strike Gold in C2 Slalom

Behind the cheers of an energized crowd of 14,421, the men's Olympic canoe/kayak slalom canoe doubles (C2) event finished in dramatic fashion on Sunday afternoon on the Ocoee River in Tennessee. Frank ADISSON and Wilfrid FORGUES of France added gold to their Olympic medal collection as two of the top three winners turned in repeat medal performances from the 1992 Olympic Games.

During the runs of the final three, 13 of 15 two-man teams turned in their fastest times on their second runs.

"After we heard the persons, so we know we had a good time," said FORGUES regarding the supportive, pro-American crowd. "I like to hear people. Here we have 14,000 people...it's beautiful."

ADISSON and FORGUES, won the gold medal in 158.82 on their second of two runs. The effort ended up being one of three penalty-free runs of the day in C2 slalom.

One of the other clean runs was made by Miroslav SIMEK and Jiri ROHAN of the Czech Republic. They duplicated their Barcelona effort by winning the silver medal. Entering the Olympic C2 slalom as the top-ranked twosome in the world, SIMEK and ROHAN turned in the second-fastest time of the day, 160.16, on the final C2 run of the competition.

The third clean run was turned in by Manfred BERRO and Michael TRUMMER of Germany, who finished their second run in 163.72. But they were denied a medal by fellow countrymen Andre EHRENBERG and Michael SENFT, who finished with an identical time of 163.72. To break the tie, officials awarded the bronze medal to EHRENBERG and SENFT for turning in a faster first run.

"We're fourth -- same time -- but they had better first run," said TRUMMER. "It's good that it's a German boat, but if you're fourth it's hard for you."

Amazingly, EHRENBERG and SENFT's 163.72 time included a touch penalty on gate 4. If they had made the course clean, they would have taken the gold medal by .10 second.

This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Mike Mead.


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