Fernando Jorge and Serguey Torres have ended a 20+ year Olympic medal drought…

The 22-year-old Cuban canoeist and his 34-year-old compatriot/partner won a surprise gold medal in the men’s canoe double 1,000 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Jorge and Torres ended the race with a time of 3:24.995, just ahead of the Chinese team, who had a time of 3:25.198.

Germany, which had won the event at five of the last seven Olympic games, won the bronze with a score of 3:25.615.

Sebastian Brendel had been in the German boat for gold medals in the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio Games.

But the race developed into a battle between Cuba and China over the final 500 meters.

The Cuban duo had won silver at the world championships in 2019, but Cuba hadn’t medaled in this event at the Olympics since 2000.