Google's wrist-wrecking London 2012 slalom canoe doodle

New Delhi: After getting you to jump hurdles and netting basketballs, Google takes to the water course for a wrist-wrecking game of slalom canoe. The London 2012 slalom canoe is the 14th doodle (and the third playable doodle) posted by Google during the ongoing London 2012 Olympics.

This interactive doodle, which features a paddler with a yellow-coloured canoe, lets you paddle a canoe down a water course that has 10 downstream gates, marked with green striped poles. Users can use left and right arrow keys to accelerate the speed of their canoes. On hitting the banks, water animals and sedimentary rocks, the speed of the canoe will slow down. The faster you paddle, the more you will score.

The Google logo is floating in the water course and appears only before the game starts. The second 'O' the Google logo is shown as the play button, which is to be hit to start the game.

$Google\'s wrist-wrecking London 2012 slalom canoe$

The doodle lets you paddle a canoe down a water course that has 10 downstream gates.

Compared to its predecessors the slalom canoe doodle isn't as engrossing and can also leave users with a pain in their hands.

Strangely, this is the first doodle this Olympics that has been posted by Google after the featured event was over.

On Wednesday, Google posted the basketball doodle that allowed users shoot baskets, while on Tuesday, Google posted its first every playable Olympic doodle dedicated to hurdles.

In slalom canoeing athletes negotiate a 250 metre white water course, flowing at a rate of 13 cubic metres per second, and dropping 5.5m from start to finish. Canoe Slalom made its debut at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games, but didn't become a permanent part of the Olympic programme until Barcelona 1992.

Modelled on slalom skiing, the first Canoe Slalom competition was held in Switzerland in 1932. The sport was staged on flat water during its early days, but was later switched to white-water rapids.