Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijani canoeist Valentin Demyanenko won a gold medal at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships held in the German city of Duisburg from August 29 to September 1.

Demyanenko won the gold medal in his crown distance of 200 meters. In the semifinals the Azerbaijani canoeist travelled the distance for 39.110 seconds. In the final, Demyanenko competed with athletes from France, Japan, Spain, Russia, Lithuania, Brazil, Portugal and Ukraine. In the decisive race he covered the distance of 200 meters for 38.462 seconds. Thus, Demyanenko won his fourth gold medal at world championships for Azerbaijan.

Another Azerbaijani canoeist, Mirnazim Javadov, who vied in the distance of 500 meters, was not able to compete for the world cup medal. Making his way to the semifinals, he rode the distance for 1 minute and 42.170 seconds, finishing in 4th place.

Another representative of Azerbaijan, Anatoliy Melnik, overcame the distance for 1 minute and 53.178 seconds, finishing 5th.

Also, Azerbaijani canoeists Sergey Bezugliy and Alexei Kupin, who covered the distance of 200 meters for 38.334 seconds in the semifinal race and ranked fourth, were not able to get into the final either. However, they proceeded to the main final in the distance of 500 meters. In the semi-final the Azerbaijani duo overcame the distance for 1 minute and 43.858 seconds, which allowed them to reach the finals with the third ranking.

In the final the Azerbaijani canoeists competed with athletes from Uzbekistan, Belarus, Czech Republic, Russia, Romania, Germany, Hungary and Kazakhstan. However, in the crucial race the Azerbaijani athletes overcame the distance in 1 minute and 46.094 seconds, ranking fifth.

Canoe sprint competitions are broken up into Canadian canoe, an open canoe with a single-blade paddle, or kayak, a closed canoe with a double-bladed paddle. Each canoe or kayak can hold one, two or four people.

The ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships are an international event in canoeing organised by the International Canoe Federation. The world championships have taken place every year in non-Summer Olympic years since 1970.