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German men’s and women’s kayak teams take gold

The German women's and men's kayak teams paddled their way to gold medals within minutes of each other on Friday at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Published: 22 August 2008 15:26 CEST

German men's and women's kayak teams take gold

Wassmuth, Ihle, Reinhardt, Hollstein, Wagner-Augustin, Fischer. Photo: DPA

Fanny Fischer, Nicole Reinhardt (who recently posed for the September edition of German Playboy), Katrin Wagner-Augustin and Conny Wassmuth gave Germany their fourth Olympic kayak four 500m crown, winning by 74-hundredths of a second in 1:32.971. Hungary captured silver and bronze went to Australia.

“We were so composed and dashed so far ahead – it was really awesome,” Wagner-Augustin told news agency DPA.

Shortly thereafter Martin Hollstein and Andreas Ihle battled to come from behind and win a 1.771-second victory over Denmark’s Kim Wraae Knudsen and Rene Holten Paulsen in the men’s kayak double 1000m final. The Danes took silver, and Italy took bronze in the event.

“It was such a hard race, but we kept our cool,” Hollstein said. “Definitely the race of my life.”

“Three Olympic Games – gold – third time lucky. The first time fourth, the second time second, the third time, first was going to happen,” teammate Ihle said.

The two gold medals give Germany a total of 13 victories at the Olympic games so far in Beijing.

Meanwhile, German canoer Tomasz Wylenzek was rushed to the hospital after taking a silver medal in the 1000-metre men’s double with his teammate Christian Gille. Wylenzek suffered what the Gemans call a “circulatory collapse,” which sounds serious, but to the rest of the world simply means that he fainted.

afp/dpa

China derides Copenhagen democracy meet as 'political farce'

Demonstrators gathered outside the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday. Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

The Copenhagen Democracy Summit was held Monday and Tuesday in the Danish capital and organised by the Alliance of Democracies, an organisation targeted by Beijing sanctions in March and founded by former NATO boss Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

In addition to Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and Hong Kong democracy activist Nathan Law, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod also participated in the forum by video link, which Beijing said violated “the one-China principle.”

“This summit is a political farce,” the Chinese embassy in Denmark wrote in a statement published on Tuesday. “Inviting those who advocate Taiwan and Hong Kong ‘independence’ to the meeting violates the one-China principle and interferes in China’s internal affairs,” it said.

“Some hypocritical western politicians are good at meddling in other countries’ internal affairs and creating divisions and confrontation in the name of ‘democracy’ and ‘freedom’. They are bound to fail,” it added.

At the conference on Monday, Kofod said it was “deplorable” that Beijing had imposed sanctions on 10 European individuals and organisations in response to EU sanctions on Xinjiang officials over their actions against the Uyghur Muslim minority.

Like most countries, Denmark applies the one-China principle — under which Beijing bars other countries from having simultaneous diplomatic relations with Taipei — though it does maintain relations with Taiwan.

Cut off politically from the rest of China since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the territory is self-governing but is not recognised by
the United Nations.

Beijing considers Taiwan a rebel province that will one day return under its control, by force if necessary.

China’s sabre-rattling has increased considerably over the past year, with fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers breaching Taiwan’s air defence zone on a near-daily basis.

“Our government is fully aware of the threats to regional security, and is actively enhancing our national defence capabilities to protect our
democracy,” Tsai told the conference in a video address on Monday. US President Joe Biden is expected to present his China strategy soon, as
calls mount for him to publicly commit to defending Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack.

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