1979 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships

The 1979 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships were held in Duisburg, West Germany.

The men's competition consisted of six Canadian (single paddle, open boat) and nine kayak events. Three events were held for the women, all in kayak.

This was the fifteenth championships in canoe sprint. It was where an incident later referred to as The Česiunas Affair took place when Soviet-born Lithuanian canoer Vladas Česiūnas appeared at the event as a spectator only to vanish. The West German government claimed Česiunas had defected, but the former canoer had returned to the Soviet Union voluntarily several weeks later. During Česiunas' disappearance, he would speak in favor of the 1980 Summer Olympics boycott, more than two months before the Soviet–Afghan War, but later returned to the Soviet Embassy in Bonn. The Soviets toned down their rhetoric about Česiunas' "disappearance" in the West and changed his mind all the while West Germany continued to maintain that he had been kidnapped.

## Medal summary

[edit]

### Men's

[edit]

#### Canoe

[edit]

Event  | Gold | Time | Silver | Time | Bronze | Time

|
|
|
|
|
|

C-1 500 m  |  Sergey Postrechin (URS) |  |  Ulrich Eicke (GER) |  |  Liubomir Ljubenov (BUL) |
C-1 1000 m  |  Tamás Wichmann (HUN) |  |  Liubomir Ljubenov (BUL) |  |  Ivan Patzaichin (ROU) |
C-1 10000 m  |  Tamás Wichmann (HUN) |  |  Sergey Liminovich (URS) |  |  Ivan Patzaichin (ROU) |
C-2 500 m  |  Romania
Ivan Patzaichin
Petre Capusta |  |  Soviet Union
Sergey Petrenko
Aleksandr Vinogradov |  |  Poland
Marek Łbik
Piotr Pawlowski |
C-2 1000 m  |  Soviet Union
Vasiliy Jurtzhenko
Yuri Lobanov |  |  Hungary
Tamás Buday
Oszkár Frey |  |  Romania
Toma Simionov
Gheorghe Simionov |
C-2 10000 m  |  Soviet Union
Vasiliy Jurtzhenko
Yuri Lobanov |  |  Romania
Cherasim Munteanu
Gheorge Titu |  |  Hungary
Tamás Buday
László Vaskúti |

#### Kayak

[edit]

Event  | Gold | Time | Silver | Time | Bronze | Time

|
|
|
|
|
|

K-1 500 m  |  Vladimir Parfenovich (URS) |  |  John Sumegi (AUS) |  |  Peter Hempel (GDR) |
K-1 1000 m  |  Rüdiger Helm (GDR) |  |  Ion Bîrlădeanu (ROU) |  |  Felix Masár (TCH) |
K-1 10000 m  |  Milan Janić (YUG) |  |  Einar Rasmussen (NOR) |  |  Nikolay Stepanenko (URS) |
K-2 500 m  |  Soviet Union
Vladimir Parfenovich
Sergei Chukhray |  |  East Germany
Bernd Olbricht
Rüdiger Helm |  |  France
Alain Lebas
Francis Hervieu |
K-2 1000 m  |  Norway
Einar Rasmussen
Olaf Søyland |  |  Hungary
Zoltán Bakó
István Szabó |  |  Soviet Union
Sergei Chukhray
Vladimir Tainikov |
K-2 10000 m  |  Romania
Nicușor Eșanu
Ion Bîrlădeanu |  |  Soviet Union
Nikolay Astapkovich
Vladimir Romanovsky |  |  Spain
Herminio Menéndez
Luis Gregorio Ramos |
K-4 500 m  |  East Germany
Bernd Duvigneau
Harald Marg
Jürgen Dittrich
Roland Graupner |  |  Soviet Union
Sergey Zhinkarenko
Ionas Sautra
Sergei Chukhray
Vladimir Tainikov |  |  Poland
Ryszard Oborski
Daniel Wełna
Grzegorz Kołtan
Grzegorz Śledziewski |
K-4 1000 m  |  East Germany
Bernd Duvigneau
Rüdiger Helm
Harald Marg
Bernd Olbricht |  |  Poland
Ryszard Oborski
Daniel Wełna
Grzegorz Kołtan
Grzegorz Śledziewski |  |  Soviet Union
Aleksandr Shaparenko
Sergei Nagornyi
Aleksandr Avdeyev
Ionas Sautra |
K-4 10000 m  |  Soviet Union
Aleksandr Shaparenko
Sergey Nikolskiy
Vladimir Morozov
Aleksandr Avdeyev |  |  Poland
Andrzej Klimaszewski
Krzysztof Lepianka
Zbigniew Torzecki
Zdzisław Szubski |  |  Hungary
Tamás Benkő
Péter Konecsny
László Szabó
Zoltán Romhany |

### Women's

[edit]

#### Kayak

[edit]

Event  | Gold | Time | Silver | Time | Bronze | Time

|
|
|
|
|
|

K-1 500 m  |  Roswitha Eberl (GDR) |  |  Galina Alekseyeva (URS) |  |  Klára Rajnai (HUN) |
K-2 500 m  |  Soviet Union
Natalya Kalashinkova
Nina Doroh |  |  East Germany
Marion Rösiger
Martina Bischof |  |  Romania
Agafia Orlov
Natasia Nichitov |
K-4 500 m  |  East Germany
Marion Rösiger
Martina Bischof
Birgit Fischer
Roswitha Eberl |  |  Soviet Union
Galina Alekseyeva
Nadezhda Trachimenok
Tatyana Korzhunova
Larissa Nadviga |  |  Romania
Agafia Orlov
Natasia Nichitov
Maria Nicolae
Adriana Tarasov |

## Medals table

[edit]

Rank| Nation| Gold| Silver| Bronze| Total

|
|
|
|
|

1|  Soviet Union (URS)| 7| 6| 3| 16
2|  East Germany (GDR)| 5| 2| 1| 8
3|  Romania (ROU)| 2| 2| 5| 9
4|  Hungary (HUN)| 2| 2| 3| 7
5|  Norway (NOR)| 1| 1| 0| 2
6|  Yugoslavia (YUG)| 1| 0| 0| 1
7|  Poland (POL)| 0| 2| 2| 4
8|  Bulgaria (BUL)| 0| 1| 1| 2
9|  Australia (AUS)| 0| 1| 0| 1
West Germany (FRG)| 0| 1| 0| 1
11|  Czechoslovakia (TCH)| 0| 0| 1| 1
France (FRA)| 0| 0| 1| 1
Spain (ESP)| 0| 0| 1| 1
Totals (13 entries)| 18| 18| 18| 54

## References

[edit]

* ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 1: flatwater (now sprint): 1936-2007.
* ICF medalists for Olympic and World Championships - Part 2: rest of flatwater (now sprint) and remaining canoeing disciplines: 1936-2007.
* Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2008). "Canoeing: Men's Canadian Pairs 1000 Meters". In The Complete Book of the Olympics: 2008 Edition. London: Aurum Press Limited. p. 493.

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ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships

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Medalists|

* Men's Canadian
* Men's kayak
* Women's Canadian
* Women's kayak
* Paracanoe

*[URS]: Soviet Union
*[GER]: Germany
*[BUL]: Bulgaria
*[HUN]: Hungary
*[ROU]: Romania
*[AUS]: Australia
*[GDR]: East Germany
*[TCH]: Czechoslovakia
*[YUG]: Yugoslavia
*[NOR]: Norway
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