2005 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships

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The 2005 Flatwater (Canoe) Racing World Championships were held in Zagreb, Croatia in August 2005.

The flatwater World Championships, organised by the ICF, are held every year except for Olympic years so these were the first World Championships since 2003, when they were held in Gainesville, USA,

Men race as individuals, pairs and quads over 200m, 500m and 1000m in both Canoe (Canadian) (C) and Kayak (K) events, giving a total of 18 gold medals. Women compete for only 9 gold medals as they race in kayak events only.

The undoubted stars of the Zagreb event were Natasa Janics and Katalin Kovacs of Hungary who completed an unprecedented clean sweep of all three women's K-2 events.

In the men's events, the C-4 200m final saw Maxim Opalev of Russia win the twelfth world championship gold of his career, thus equalling György Kolonics's record. Andreas Dittmer of Germany retained both the world titles he had won in Gainesville (C-1 500m and 1000m). Ronald Rauhe and Tim Wieskötter of Germany won their fourth consecutive K-2 500m title, whilst compatriots Christian Gille and Tomasz Wylenzek followed up their C-2 1000m 2004 Athens Olympic success with two golds (C-2 500m and 1000m).

The championships also marked a change of generation as many stars had retired after the Olympics, especially in the women's events. Two-thirds of the winners at Zagreb were first-time gold medallists.

Germany topped the medal table, winning 10 of the 27 gold medals, followed by Hungary with 6 golds, then Spain and Russia with 2 golds each.


Official Website including complete results