By Philip O’Connor
PARIS (Reuters) – Giovanni De Gennaro’s stunning gold medal run in Thursday’s single kayak slalom final brought to an end three years of misery for the Italian, who finished a disappointing 15th in Tokyo – a result that fired him up for his Paris success.
De Gennaro blasted down the tricky course in a time of 88.22 seconds and then watched as his rivals failed to beat his mark, eventually being crowned Olympic champion after Britain’s Joe Clarke, the final racer of the day, could not dislodge him
“I’m in disbelief, I don’t know what’s happening. I’m just super happy that I have this piece of gold in my on my neck and it’s just amazing,” he told Reuters, still in shock at his win.
“Just an amazing day. I’m so happy my family’s here and I could share this emotion with the crowd.”
With the 12 finalist going in reverse order based on their performance in the semi-final earlier in the afternoon, De Gennaro found himself descending the course fifth, and when his run was complete he knew he was in with a chance of gold.
“I thought it could be … I had a little mistake in the middle part where I lost, I think, one second in something, so I thought there was still room for someone to get in front of me. But yeah, in the end the time was enough,” he said.
The ensuing wait to see if he had done enough was a tough one.
“(It was) the longest 10 minutes of my life, and maybe even more. They are all great athletes, they can all fight for the gold, so I knew there was nothing sure. I just wished I had a medal, and I have the heaviest one now so I’m super happy,” he said.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Alison Williams)
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