Following the kayak four final, the Guangzhou quartet rammed their boat into the Nanchang team for paddling in their lane during the race.

This led to a fight between the two sides, with a paddle aimed at Liao Zhensheng leading to him being rushed to hospital.

The Nanchang team were disqualified, while another team from the city, led by Li Kun, taking gold in 7min 15.693sec.

Hangzhou came second and Deyang third, but the incident will be a major irritant to the Chinese sports authorities, who are likely to take a dim view of the behaviour of the kayakers in the build up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Chinese sports chief Liu Peng had already said that 58 athletes had been disqualified from the City Games over a number of offences.

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