'I lived like all Cubans, I was no longer in the bubble of sports'

Anational hero after his gold in Tokyo, Fernando Dayan Jorge Enriquez now proudly flies the flag for refugees

- Andy Bull

'tis 1,000m to the finish line at the flatwater sprint canoeing course, but the man in lane three of the second heat has come a hell of a lot further than that to make it there. If you were paying close attention during Tokyo 2020, you may remember Fernando Dayan Jorge Enriquez. If you are Cuban you absolutely do. He won the country's first gold medal in canoeing, when competing with Serguey Torres in the two-man 1,000m sprint.

The win turned Jorge into a national hero. Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee president, came to congratulate them and Granma, the official paper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, carried several long, lavish reports, describing it as a "Cuban Feat" and an "Electrifying Victory".

It was a great race. The Cuban pair trailed China and Germany all the way to the final few metres, when they pushed past into first. Torres, 34, gave all the credit to Dayan Jorge, who was 22. "This boy gave me the desire to fight," he said. "He has put his hand on my shoulder and told me: 'Come on, you can. This young man is destined to become one of the great Cuban athletes, and a super hero of world canoeing."