5th WUC Canoe Sprint: Day 1

KAZAN – Yesterday, August 29^th, the canoeists at the 5th World University Canoe Sprint Championship come into action. The competitions kicked off early in the morning at the Rowing Centre on Kaban Lake in Kazan.

Polish athlete Tomasz OLSZEWSKI easily won the first men’s singles 1,000 m qualifying heat (3:36.3) thus earning the right to compete in the finals. He will be joined by the Italian athlete Carlo CECCIHINI (3:38.71) and Hungarian kayak sprinter Gergely CSASZAR (3:39.77). Athletes from Uzbekistan, Lithuania, Australia, Serbia, France, Brazil and Kazakhstan competed in the second race. At the last 200 metres of the distance the Lithuanian paddler Ricardas NEKRIOSIUS took the lead and came home first (3:40.91). The next to finish were the French kayak sprinter Alexandre CRESSOL (3:43.5) and the athlete from Uzbekistan Villiam IBRAGIMOV (3:44.5). Thus, they automatically advanced to the finals. The remaining finals places will be decided in the semi-finals in which Joao Fernando Arruda Motta ALVES (BRA), Denis DMITRIYEV (KAZ), Jack MURPHY (AUS) and Pavle JOVANOV (SRB) will compete. Russian athlete Vladislav Litovka won the men’s K1 1,000m semi-final race and earned the right to compete in the finals. Along with Litovka, Andreas Diamantis (CYP) and Jiri Mladek (CZE) got through to the finals as well.

Teams of Belarus, Hungary, Australia, Moldova and Ukraine were out on the course for the men’s K4 1,000m qualifying heats this morning. The Belarusian crew (Pavel MIADZVEDZEU, Andrei TSARYKOVICH, Andrei KALOSKA, Vitaliy BIALKO) controlled the race from the out-set and came home with the rest of competitors far behind. As a result the Belarusians won the race in a decent time of 2:57.96. The Hungarian and Ukrainian crews took the second and third places respectively and made it through to the finals. The second qualifying heat revealed the winners practically from the very start. Poland’s K4 (Pawel SZANDRACH, Mariusz KUJAWSKI, Marcin NICKOWSKI, Rafal MARON) and Russia’s K4 (Vladislav LITOVKA, Nikolay CHERVOV, Ruslan MAMUTOV, Oleg ZHESTKOV) crews led the field by turns, but the Polish paddlers ended the race ahead of the Russian four. Poland’s time is 2:56.34, Russia’s is 2:56.53. Nevertheless, both teams, along with the Italian crew (which finished with 3:4.27) progressed to the men’s K4 1,000m final.

In the so-called ‘repechage’ K4 1,000m semi-finals the Moldavian rowers won the race (3:7.16), the team of Kyrgyzstan came second (3:7.41), and the Czech kayakers finished in the third place (3:7.54).

The men’s K1 500m event brought another confident win to the Russian national team in the second qualifying heat. Kirill LYPUNOV set a new best time at the 5th World University Canoe Sprint Championship (1:39.330) to be followed over the line by Belarusian paddler Pavel MIADZVEDZEU (1:40.51) who previously shined during the first qualifying race in the same distance. Six kayak racers earned berths in the final during two K1 500m qualifying races. Guillaume BURGER (FRA) and Akos Gyozo FULOP (HUN) crossed the finish line in second and third places respectively in the first qualifying heat to secure places in the final. And Pawel ROSOLSKI (POL) and Carlo CECCIHINI (ITA) made it through to the final in the second qualifying race. And the names of another three K1 500-metre finalists have become known near the end of Day 1. The outsiders of the qualifying heats had to try their best to make it to the finals. The only representative of sunny Uzbekistan Villiam IBRAGIMOV doubled his chances to win the medals. We shall remind that earlier he had already got through to the K1 1,000m finals, and now he got the chance to compete in K1 500m finals as well. He will be joined in these final races by the Cyprian athlete Andreas DIAMANTIS who came third in the K1 500m semi-finals. Another addition to K1 finalists at this distance is the representative of Lithuania Andrej OLIJNIK who took the second place in the semi-final race.

The men’s K2 500m races ended Day 1 of the 5th FISU WUC Canoe Sprint. In the first K2 500m qualifying heat the Ukranian crew of Sergii TOKARNYTSKYI and Igor TRUNOV set an early pace and was the first to cross the finish line in a time of 1:31.71. And the Brazilian rowers Joao Carlos RODRIGUES and Michel RODRIGUES, who were fourth during the race, produced a strong push and came second (1:31.97). The third to finish were the Hungarian rowers Attila Tas TOTH and Mate SZOMOLANYI (1:33.08). The main battle in the second K2 500m qualifying heat was between the Polish and Russian crews. The Russian paddlers Igor BAK and Ruslan MAMUTOV not only took control of the race but showed the best time among K2 crews – 1:37.37 with the Polish team of Marcin NICKOWSKI and Mariusz KUJAWSKI completing the course more than a second behind (1:31.81) and Lithuania coming home in third place (1:33.32). And the French pair which was previously seen as the tournament’s favourite settled for the fourth place. Outsiders of the qualifying heats were given another chance to squeeze into the final – semi-finals. Luck favoured the teams of Uzbekistan, Lithuania, Cyprus, France, Kazakhstan and Italy. The men’s K2 500m finals will take place on August 31st.

The competition schedule for Day 2 of the 5th World University Canoe Sprint Championship is available .  

(Source: Media Department of Kazan 2013 Executive Directorate)