Wang and Yang, who clocked 1:43.247 to win the title, only 0.204 second faster than the second placed Buglakov Alexander and Cherchenko Alexey of Kazakhstan.

The Chinese pair even fell behind in the first 250 meters by 0.55 second and only took the lead 20 meters before the finish line.

"We felt great pressure during the race," said Yang, "The Kazakhstan pair are very strong. We competed under great pressure."

"The result equaled our best mark in recent competitions. I am satisfied." added Yang.

"Our actions were even out of control in the last meters because of the strain." said Wang, "We had problems in the competing tactics, when we were close to the finish line, I had exerted all my strength and found myself hard to even wave the oar."

"However, we finally managed to win the title." said Yang, "We are determined to win the race and we tried our utmost to win. We got it."

The bronze medal went to Jun Kwang-Rak and Park Chang-Kyu of South Korea who clocked 1:45.251.

(People's Daily October 13, 2002)