When professor She Zhensu designed the Shunyi Olympic slalom course, he included barricades shaped into five distinct letters: C, H, I, N and A.

He was trying capture the same sort of good fortune brought to Canada by the so-called "Lucky Loonie", the Canadian one-dollar coin buried in the ice at the Salt Lake City Games said to be the good luck charm responsible for Canada's unlikely gold-medal sweep in the Olympic hockey tournaments.

She's superstitious design, however, failed to deliver the luck, after a controversial penalty cost Chinese kayaker Li Jingjing a chance to advance to the women's K1 final Friday at the Shunyi Rowing and Canoeing Park, denying China a chance for a medal in the event.

Li Jingjing of China competes during the kayak K1 women's heats in the Beijing Olympic Games at the Shunyi Rowing and Canoeing Park in Beijing on Wednesday. [Agencies]

Li, a 23-year-old from Fujian, initially placed eighth in the semifinal race Friday, but she was later informed she would received an additional penalty because judges decided she did not pass through Gate 12 successfully. The penalty dropped her to 13th place and out of Friday's final.

The Chinese team immediately appealed and asked for a video review, but the call stood.

"I think I passed the gate correctly," Li said after the race. "But this is a sport that often has judging controversies and I can do nothing about it."

The fast-improving Li has lifted herself out of obscurity to become a medal hopeful in Beijing after a runner-up finish at the World Cup earlier this year. Men's C2 athletes Hu Minghai and Shu Junrong have also had respectable performances recently, finishing seventh at the 2007 World Championships and second at the Prague World Cup earlier this season.

Their progress had convinced even professor She that they could do well in Beijing.

She and his research team at Peking University have done a lot to help local athletes realize their medal dreams. They were working closely with the national team in 2006 when they began designing the course.

Their efforts seemed to pay off when Hu/Shu and Li finished second and third, respectively, in their preliminaries on Wednesday.

But just when they looked destined for a medal, the inexperience of the Olympic debutants caught up to them.

Hu/Shu nearly fell into the water amid pouring rain during the semifinal race on Thursday en route to their elimination.

Li followed their unlucky run with a sub-par performance Friday, which put her on the verge of elimination even before the last penalty sealed her fate.

"We cannot blame anything but ourselves," said Liu Aijie, vice-president of China's aquatic sports administrative center.

"The major reason is not that penalty. Our athletes just did not put on a good show today."