POZNAN – The 4th edition of the World University Championship came to an end today, August 29th. Thanks to Tomasz Sponder, the President of the OC and his assistant Joanna Zdunek who has done the job of 20 people, it was without any doubt a success.
FISU CT Chair Zeljko Rajkovic could be very happy and not only because his 3 children (one daughter and 2 boys) had conquered many medals in the Mini Kayak Belgrade Open Youth Championships and the day after in competitions in Zrenjanin. The FISU CT Chair was also more than satisfied with the overall results of the Serbian athletes which clinched 2 gold medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze and paid from their own pocket all the travel and accommodation costs. Mr. Rajkovic was also delighted because of the numbers of the participating countries (23 for an event record) and 244 participants despite the absence of countries like Great-Britain, Canada, USA or Germany because of the National Championships that had to be placed in a very jammed international calendar. The FISU CT Chair was also happy because of the quality of the competition (the technical part being also wonderfully co-supervised by ICF Technical delegate Nelly Müller) as explained in our previous news article and also because he made some very good contacts in order to find an organizer for the 2012 Championship.
Sunday was divided in 3 parts: during the morning all the 500 meters finals, at noon the 200 meters finals followed by the closing ceremony. It means a lot of work for the CISCA members, its President Oleg Matytsin, FISU CT Chair Zeljko Rajkovic, CIC member Fernando Parente, Medical Committee member Dr. Roland Questel who had to award all the medals: but they have to admit there are more demanding efforts in life than giving the medals and kissing the 12 female medallists of the K4-500 meters!
Romanian Festival in 500 Meters
So let’s go back chronologically to the last day of competitions and to the 500 meters morning finals. The opening race, the K1 500 meters was won by the Vice-World Champion of last week, the Slovakian Peter Gelle in front of the Australian Murray Stewart and the Russian Artem Kononyuk. In the C1 500 meters event, Jevgenij Szuklin from Lithuania emerged in the last meters in front of the Polish Tomasz Kaczor and the Kazakh Rusian Muratov. The K2 500 meters women was of course followed very closely by CT Chair Zeljko Rajkovic who not only saw the victory of his countrywomen, the sisters Moldovan, but who had also the pleasure to award them their gold medals. It was just after the turn for Poland to get back on the top of the podium with the duo Marcin Nickowski and Mariusz Kujawski who confirmed their 1,000 meters victory of yesterday.
The three last finals of the morning in 500 meters were all won by Romania. There was no surprise for the last week World Champion C2 Team Dumitrescu – Mihalachi and Vice-World Champion Team C4 Comanici, Simimion, Bogdan and Gheoca. They have confirmed their yesterday victory in 1,000 meters. The K4 Romanian team Traian Neagu- Lonut Lustin Porcarasu- Toni Lionel Ioneticu- Stefan Vasile beaten yesterday in 1,000 meters by Belarus took their revenge by clinching the gold in front of the same Belarusian team.
The Big 200 Meters Show
The noon finals were disputed on the new (first time in FISU program) but very spectacular distance of 200 meters. All the races are disputed, very short and the visual spectacle of the paddles moving on a very fast pace is impressive.
The first final of the afternoon session, the K1-200 meters, was a very close race – but this was of course obvious – and at the end of an epic sprint, the athlete from Latvia Alexsejs Rumjancevs won the first Medal – and a gold one! – 36 hunderds of seconds in front of the Polish Piotr Siemionowski and the Russian Artem Koknonyuk. Thirty hundreds of seconds this was also the very tiny difference in between the women gold medallist of the K1-500 meters Inna Klinova from Ukraine from her second Ivana Kmetova from Slovakia.
After Australian medals for Oceania, it was the turn of the South American continent to be honored with the wonderful win of the Brazilian Nivalter Santos de Jesus after a neck to neck sprint in the C1 category against the Lithuanian Szuklin. It was a also a good day for Latvia Alexsejs Rumjancevs who clinched his second gold in a range of 20 minutes but with the help of Krists Straume in the K2 200 meters. K2 women 200m final saw the reverse results of this morning 500 meters finals with the Ukranian pair I. Kmetova-M. Kohlova beating the Serbian sisters Moldovan by 4th hundreds of seconds! It was the turn after this event for the C2 Romanian World Champs to show their invincibility and to win the gold on the 200 meters after their victories in 500 meters and 1,000 meters. You call that a grand slam which was missed by the C4 Romanian team only seconds from a race won by the Hungarians Sik, Gyertyanos, Karsai and Boros that won finally the first Gold for Hungary that clinches also an impressive amount 6 silver and 4 bronze medals. The girls from Belarus K4 won the second goal medal for their country while the bronze medallist of the last World Championship Pavel Petrov led its C4 team to the first gold of the Championships
With 6 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze medals, Romania is the first in the nation’s medals ranking although Poland has won the most medals: 13 but only 4 gold, 2 silver and 7 bronze.
Closing Ceremony
The Closing Ceremony took place with the presence of the Vice-Mayor of Poznan Jerzy Stepien, the President and Vice-President of the Polish Canoe Federation, Jozef Bejnarowicz and Tadeaus Wroblowski, the Treasurer of the International Canoe Federation, the Italian Luciano Bionfiglio and, of course, the members of the CISCA under the chair of FISU EC member Oleg Matytsin.
(Source: Marc VANDENPLAS, FISU Summer Universiade Director)
Medal Podium K4 Women 500m
Medal Podium C1 Men 100m
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