Grimm wins kayaking gold for Germany, Togo medals

By Balazs Koranyi

BEIJING (Reuters) - Alexander Grimm won Germany's first gold of the Games in the men's singles kayak slalom on Tuesday and Togo's Benjamin Boukpeti claimed his country's first Olympic medal.

Frenchman Fabien Lefevre took the silver.

Grimm, starting his final run in fourth place, jumped to first by blazing down the course without an error and taking the difficult upstream gates smoothly.

Boukpeti, ranked 56th in the world, stunned the field by taking the lead in his first run and hung on to win Togo's first Olympic medal.

He became the first non-European male kayaker to win an Olympic slalom medal and received by far the biggest cheers from the packed crowd.

"I can hardly believe it but I'm not surprised," said a clearly dazed Boukpeti who broke his paddle slamming it against his boat at the finish.

Lefevre, favorite after Slovenia's Peter Kauzer failed to make the final, produced error-free runs but struggled in the upper part of the course, especially the part known as Dragon's Bath.

"I didn't have that little bit of excellence that I had earlier in the season," Lefevre told reporters.