Olympics-Canoeing-Sweet and fish sacrifices give golden payoff for Czech paddler Dostal

By Philip O'Connor

PARIS (Reuters) - Canoeist Josef Dostal of the Cech Republic roared to victory in the men's 1000m canoe single Olympic final at the Vaires-sur-Marne, finally getting the payoff he desired for sacrificing two of his great loves - sweet treats and fishing.

The 31-year-old knew things would have to change if he was going to achieve better results than his one silver and three bronze medals collected in London, Rio and Tokyo, and it was his love of sweets and fishing that took the biggest hit.

"We added more training sessions, we skipped the sweet food, which I really loved - I was eating more and lost a lot of weight ... the difference between this year and last year is like four or five kilograms, which is a lot," he told Reuters after beating out the Hungarian pair of Adam Varga and Balint Kopasz to win gold.

While sugar went out the window, he couldn't quite bring himself to stop fishing entirely.

"It's not like I was not fishing, but I was just fishing for like six, seven hours a day, not like (the usual) 12 hours, so right now I'm really looking forward to standing in the river, doing nothing, trying to catch a fish, knowing I am the Olympic champion," he grinned.

The Czech canoeist, who engaged the services of a mental therapist and changed the colour of his boat to red and black as part of his efforts to improve his performances, said he had no intention of retiring after winning Olympic gold.

"I have to go for a world championship where I'm competing with my fiance in the K2 mixed (race), so I'm really looking forward to it. And now it's really time to say this cliche, but now it's time to enjoy it. This was hard work," he said.

(This story has been corrected to clarify the relationship to mental therapist in paragraph 6)

(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Christian Radnedge)