# Canoeing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's C-1 500 metres

The men's C-1 500 metres competition in canoeing at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park in Beijing. The C-1 event is raced in single-man sprint canoes. This would be the last time the event would take place at the Summer Olympics. On 13 August 2009, it was announced by the International Canoe Federation that the men's 500 m events would be replaced by 200 m events at the 2012 Summer Olympics with one of them being K-1 200 m for the women. The other events for men at 200 m will be C-1, C-2, and K-1.
Competition consists of three rounds: the heats, the semifinals, and the final. All boats compete in the heats. The top finisher in each of the three heats advances directly to the final, while the next six finishers (places 2 through 7) in each heat move on to the semifinals. The top three finishers in each of the two semifinals join the heats winners in the final.
Heats took place on August 19, semifinals on August 21, and finals on August 23.

## Schedule

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Tuesday, August 19, 2008 | 16:10-16:40 | Heats |
| Thursday, August 21, 2008 | 16:00-16:20 | Semifinals |
| Saturday, August 23, 2008 | 15:45-16:00 | Final |

## Medalists

| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Maxim Opalev (RUS) | David Cal (ESP) | Iurii Cheban (UKR) |

## Results
### Heats

Qualification Rules: 1->Final, 2..7->Semifinals, Rest Out

#### Heat 1

| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | David Cal | Spain | 1:48.095 | QF |
| 2 | Florin Georgian Mironcic | Romania | 1:48.608 | QS |
| 3 | Yuriy Cheban | Ukraine | 1:49.454 | QS |
| 4 | Attila Vajda | Hungary | 1:49.942 | QS |
| 5 | Aldo Pruna | Cuba | 1:51.111 | QS |
| 6 | Nivalter Jesus | Brazil | 1:51.363 | QS |
| 7 | Torsten Lachmann | Australia | 2:00.594 | QS |
| 8 | Fortunato Luis Pacavira | Angola | 2:13.265 | |

#### Heat 2

| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Aliaksandr Zhukouski | Belarus | 1:48.669 | QF |
| 2 | Mark Oldershaw | Canada | 1:48.817 | QS |
| 3 | Mathieu Goubel | France | 1:49.527 | QS |
| 4 | Andreas Dittmer | Germany | 1:49.527 | QS |
| 5 | Mikhail Yemelyanov | Kazakhstan | 1:54.832 | QS |
| 6 | Marián Ostrčil | Slovakia | 1:55.911 | QS |
| 7 | Calvin Mokoto | South Africa | 2:03.372 | QS |

#### Heat 3

| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Maxim Opalev | Russia | 1:47.849 | QF |
| 2 | Li Qiang | China | 1:49.164 | QS |
| 3 | Paweł Baraszkiewicz | Poland | 1:50.463 | QS |
| 4 | Vadim Menkov | Uzbekistan | 1:52.793 | QS |
| 5 | Andreas Kiligkaridis | Greece | 1:54.541 | QS |
| 6 | Mikelis Ezmalis | Latvia | 1:54.890 | QS |
| 7 | Sean Pangelinan | Guam | 2:12.696 | QS |

### Semifinals

Qualification Rules: 1..3->Final, Rest Out

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Yuriy Cheban | Ukraine | 1:51.507 | QF |
| 2 | Mathieu Goubel | France | 1:52.239 | QF |
| 3 | Li Qiang | China | 1:52.887 | QF |
| 4 | Andreas Dittmer | Germany | 1:53.182 | |
| 5 | Aldo Pruna | Cuba | 1:53.809 | |
| 6 | Vadim Menkov | Uzbekistan | 1:55.610 | |
| 7 | Nivalter Jesus | Brazil | 1:56.139 | |
| 8 | Marián Ostrčil | Slovakia | 1:58.401 | |
| 9 | Sean Pangelinan | Guam | 2:17.940 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Attila Vajda | Hungary | 1:51.029 | QF |
| 2 | Florin Georgian Mironcic | Romania | 1:51.535 | QF |
| 3 | Paweł Baraszkiewicz | Poland | 1:51.744 | QF |
| 4 | Mark Oldershaw | Canada | 1:52.649 | |
| 5 | Andreas Kiligkaridis | Greece | 1:56.310 | |
| 6 | Mikelis Ezmalis | Latvia | 1:56.907 | |
| 7 | Torsten Lachmann | Australia | 1:59.119 | |
| 8 | Mikhail Yemelyanov | Kazakhstan | 2:06.908 | |
| 9 | Calvin Mokoto | South Africa | 2:12.226 | |

### Final

| Rank | Canoer | Country | Time |
| | Maxim Opalev | Russia | 1:47.140 |
| | David Cal | Spain | 1:48.397 |
| | Yuriy Cheban | Ukraine | 1:48.766 |
| 4 | Mathieu Goubel | France | 1:49.056 |
| 5 | Aliaksandr Zhukouski | Belarus | 1:49.092 |
| 6 | Li Qiang | China | 1:49.287 |
| 7 | Florin Georgian Mironcic | Romania | 1:49.861 |
| 8 | Paweł Baraszkiewicz | Poland | 1:50.048 |
| 9 | Attila Vajda | Hungary | 1:50.156 |
Opalev's gold earned him a complete set of medals in this event, having won a silver in 2000 and a bronze in 2004.