London Olympics: Canoe Sprint

One of the many blink-or-you'll-miss-it events in London 2012 will be the Olympic Canoe Sprint races, held at Eton Dorney from Monday 6 to Saturday 11 August. Unlike the Canoe Slalom events, which are held on the rapids of the Lee Valley White Water Centre north of London, Canoe Sprinting requires flat water, hence the choice of the world-class centre at Eton Dorney, 25km west of London, which also hosts the Olympic rowing programme. Canoe Sprint events are head-to-head races over distances of 200m, 500m or 1,000m, either solo, in pairs or teams of four. There are separate events for kayaks (where participants sit in the boat, use a double-bladed paddle and steer using a small foot-controlled rudder) and canoes (where competitors, from a kneeling position, steer their vessel with corrective strokes of a single-bladed paddle). London 2012 sees the Olympic debut of the Canoe Sprint 200m race.