London, England –  France's Tony Estanguet won the men's canoe single event Tuesday, earning his third gold medal in the slalom event.

It was a bit of redemption for Estanguet, who took gold in 2000 and '04, but failed to make the final four years ago in Beijing.

But Tuesday, he navigated the slalom course in 97.06 seconds -- 1.03 seconds faster than silver medalist Sideris Tasiadis of Germany.

Slovakia's Michal Martikan, who has battled Estanguet for supremacy of this event for more than a decade, took bronze after clocking a time of 98.31. It is his fifth Olympic medal in the event, but first bronze.

Martikan won gold in 1996 before finishing runner-up to Estanguet in the next two games, then got back to the top of the podium in 2008.