Oakville's Adam Van Koeverden wins silver medal

August 23, 2008

Doug Smith

BEIJING– Whatever Adam Van Koeverden didn't have on Friday, he found a bit of overnight.

It just wasn't enough to bring him all the way back.

The 26-year-old paddler, one day after one of the worst races of his career, rebounded to win the silver medal in the K1 500 metres at the Beijing Olympics today, beaten in the late stages of the race by Australia's Ken Wallace.

The native of Oakville, who won the same event in Athens four years ago, was caught in the final few metres and finished in 1:37.630 to Wallace's 1:37.252. Tim Brabants of Great Britain won the bronze in 1:37.671.

Van Koeverden had bombed out in the K1 1,000 on Friday here, finishing a distant eighth in a nine-man race in which he was expected to contend, if not win. And while he was mystified at what happened in that event, he was in control the K-1 500 race until the final few strokes.

"I'm proud of myself today because of all of the distractions and the pressure," he said immediately after his race. "For the last 24 hours there's been a lot of doubt in my mind, the kind of thing I've never dealt with before.

"And that's a little victory for me today."

The 6-foot, 187-pound Van Koeverden was first halfway through the race, going through 250 metres in 46.84 seconds but he staggered home with the third-slowest final 250 in the race, clocked at a pedestrian 50.79 seconds.

Canada's flag-bearer at the opening ceremonies of the Games, Van Koeverden came in with high expectations of winning two medals and as a strong possibility to win both races.

Van Koeverden wasn't the only high-profile Canadian athlete to fall short of expectations on the second-to-last day of competition here.

In the women's mountain bike race earlier Saturday, prohibitive medal favourite Marie-Helene Premont, who has already clinched the season-long World Cup title, developed breathing problems in the second of six laps around 4.5-kilometre and withdrew. Catharine Pendrel of Fredericton finished fourth in the same race.

-- Doug Smith is a reporter for the Toronto Star