Fischer paddles into history books

Fischer, left, and Wagner paddle to gold

Germany's Birgit Fischer ended her amazing Olympic career with a record seventh gold medal in the women's 500 metres kayak pairs.

Her golden farewell was almost ruined by the weather, however, as the last six canoe finals were delayed by six hours due to strong winds.

At one stage stage a plan was being hatched to hold them on Monday, after the Olympics officially close.

But, with some of the teams booking out of their hotels and due to fly home Sunday night, there was extra pressure on the organisers to get the finals started, which they eventually did at 3pm Sydney time.

Already the most successful paddler in history, 38-year-old Fischer grabbed her second gold in Sydney with an easy win in the final event of the competition.

In the first final, the women's K1 500m, Josefa Iden Guerrini of Italy took gold ahead of Canada's Caroline Brunet and Australia's Catrin Borcher.

In the men's equivalent, Knut Holmann of Norway won gold with Petar Merkov of Bulgaria taking silver and Michael Kolganov grabbing bronze.

Gyorgy Kolonics of Hungary was the victor in the Men's C1 500m final, closely followed by Maxim Opalev of Russia with German Andreas Dittmer in third.

In the men's C2 Ferenc Novak and Imre Pulai gave Hungary their second gold of the day, followed by paris from Poland and Romania.

Hungary went on to make it three when they claimed victory in the men's K2 sprint, sprinting home ahead of the Australian and the German pair, who took silver and bronze respectively. German veteran Birgit Fischer and her partner Katrin Wagner swept to victory in the women's K2 sprint, preventing the Hungarians from picking up a fourth gold with Poland in the frame again, taking bronze.