Yury Postrigay and Alexander Dyachenko of Russia won gold in the inaugural men’s 200-meter K-2 at the Olympic canoe sprint regatta on Saturday.
The Russians, who were the quickest qualifiers from the semifinals, won in a time of 33.507 seconds. Raman Piatrushenka and Vadzim Makhneu of Belarus won the silver medal and Liam Heath and Jon Schofield of Britain took bronze.
The youngest pair in the eight-team final, Postrigay and Dyachenko won a World Cup event in Duisburg in May but came into 2012 without any pedigree.
Arnaud Hybois and Sebastien Jouve won world titles in 2010 and 2011 but they finished fourth Saturday.
The London Games marks the first time 200-meter races have been staged at an Olympics, replacing the 500.
