China made history yet again in a sport where they are not considered world beaters as Meng Guanliang and Yang Wenjun raced to victory in a tightly contested men's C-2 500m flatwater canoeing competition held at the Schinias Olympic Rowing and Canoeing Centre.
Surprised Meng and Yang were timed at 1:40.279 for the gold, followed by Cuba and Russia in the second and third places respectively. Romania finished fourth.
Just after crossing the finish line none of the competitors was sure of who had won as six boats finished in less than 0.580 seconds and a photo finish was needed to split them.
When the Chinese duo found out moments later that they had won the race they couldn't believe it.
'We were so overjoyed when we found out we won gold. This is just a perfect ending for us. We trained so hard and we raced so hard. We really thought we missed out on a medal. Imagine our feeling when we found out that we won,' said 27-year-old Meng, the older of the pair.
'It was a very hard for us. We were trailing the leaders for much of the way, but we gutted it out towards the last 200 metres when we made some progress. But never did we expect to cross the finishing line first. It was so close and we expected the worst. But the best result we could have wished for came true. We are absolutely delighted with this win.'