Two of the expected stars came through with two golds apiece at the 2019 ICF World Sprint Championships, but the biggest of the event came from U.S. teen Nevin Harrison in front of excited crowds in Szeged, Hungary.
The International Canoe Federation’s own report told it well:
“17-year-old Nevin Harrison was barely known even in her own country before winning C1 gold at the Pan American Games, but the American has thrown herself into medal contention for next year’s C1 200 Olympic debut with a stunning gold in Szeged.
“Canadian multiple world champion, Laurence Vincent-Lapointe, suspended because of a doping violation, was the only big name missing from the final, but it didn’t phase Harrison, who beat home Russian Olesia Romasenko and Belarus’s Alena Nazdrova.
“’I was going into that final thinking, man I’m just happy to be here, and I never ever felt that a medal was possible, and especially gold,’ Harrison said.
“’Oh my gosh, it’s been my dream since I was a little kid to make the Olympics, it’s so good to be here.’”
The result was completely unexpected, especially since Harrison had been third in her heat and second in her semifinal. But she beat the 2018 Worlds runner-up Romasenko by 49.30-49.74 with Nazdrova third for the second straight year in 49.99.
Pretty amazing; women’s canoeing will be introduced into the Olympic program in Tokyo for the first time, and the U.S. hasn’t won an Olympic medal in flatwater canoeing since 2004. Harrison has had a GoFundMe campaign on since last November, raising $3,180 of a hoped-for $10,000 to help her get to the Games. She should do better in the fund-raising now.
Two of canoeing’s big stars showed well in Hungary, with Germany’s Sebastian Brendel and New Zealand’s Lisa Carrington both winning twice:
● Brendel won the C-1 500 m for the first time in his career at the World Championships and took the C-1 5,000 m for the sixth time. He finished second to Brazil’s Isaquias Quieroz dos Santos in the C-1 1,000 m that he had won four times before, and now owns 20 World Champs medals: 12 gold, five silvers and three bronzes.
● Carrington dominated the women’s K-1 200 m and K-1 500 m races; it’s her seventh world title in a row in the 200 m and third in the 500 m. Her career totals are now up to 17 Worlds medals, with 10 golds, five silvers and two bronzes. She will be the heavy favorite in both events in Tokyo.
With 30 events on the program, there were only five repeat winners (including team events with the same team members):
Men:
● C-1 5,000 m: Sebastian Brendel (GER)
● K-2 1,000 m: Max Hoff (GER), with Jacob Schopf vs. Marcus Gross (2018)
● K-4 500 m: Germany, with the same team: Tom Liebscher, Ronald Rauhe, Max Rendschmidt and Max Lemke
Women:
● K-1 200 m: Lisa Carrington (NZL)
● K-2 1,000 m: Erika Medveczky (HUN), with Reka Hagymasi vs. Tamara Csipes (2018)
In addition to Brendel and Carrington, double winners included Tom Leibscher (GER) in the K-1 500 m and K-4 500 m; Belarus’s Maryna Livinchuk and Volha Khudzenka in the K-2 200 m and K-2 500 m and two Hungarian paddlers: Dora Bodonyi in the K-1 5,000 m and the K-4 500 m and Tamara Csipes in the K-1 1,000 m and K-4 500 m.
Belarus won the most medals with 14 (6-4-4), followed by Hungary (12: 5-4-3) and Germany (11: 6-4-1). Summaries:
ICF World Sprint Championships
Szeged (HUN) ~ 21-25 August 2019
(Full results here)
Men
C-1 200 m: 1. Henrikas Zustautus (LTU), 39.36; 2. Artsem Kozyr (BLR), 40.08; 3. Zaza Nadiradze (GEO), 40.24; 4. Alfonso Benavides (ESP), 40.79; 5. Jonatan Hajdu (HUN), 41.18.
C-1 500 m: 1. Sebastian Brendel (GER), 1:53.59; 2. Angel Kodinov (BUL), 1:54.49; 3. Oleg Tarnovschi (MDA), 1:54.94; 4. Wiktor Glazunow (POL), 1:55.28; 5. Mikhail Karpov (RUS), 1:55.79.
C-1 1,000 m (OG): 1. Isaquias Queiroz dos Santos (BRA), 3:59.23; 2. Tomasz Kacsor (POL), 4:00.92; 3. Adrien Bart (FRA), 4:01.55; 4. Sebastian Brendel (GER), 4:01.60; 5. Martin Fuksa (CZE), 4:02.02.
C-1 5,000 m: 1. Sebastian Brendel (GER), 22:15.86; 2. Balazs Adolf (HUN), 22:19.15; 3. Fernando Jorge Enriquez (CUB), 22:30.46; 4. Carlo Tacchini (ITA), 22:34.62; 5. Rigoberto Camilo (MEX), 23:00.21.
C-2 200 m: 1. Alberto Pedrero/Pablo Grana (ESP), 36.06; 2. Michal Marek Lubniewski/Arsen Sliwinski (POL), 36.18; 3. Artur Guliev/Elyorjon Mamadaliev (UZB), 36.42; 4. Hieb Saladukha/Dzianis Makhlai (BLR), 36.61; 5. Merey Medetov/Timur Khaidarov (KAZ), 36.73.
C-2 500 m: 1. Qiang Li/Sing Xing (CHN), 1:37.33; 2. Jonatan Hajdu/Adam Fekete (HUN), 1:38.41; 3. Alfonso Benavides/Antoni Segura (ESP), 1:38.97; 4. Pavel Petrov/Mikhail Pavlov (RUS), 1:39.04; 5. Jan Vandrey/Conrad-Robin Scheibner (GER), 1:39.43.
C-2 1,000 m (OG): 1. Hao Liu/Hao Wang (CHN), 3:40.55; 2. Serguey Torres Madrigal/Fernando Jorge Enriquez (CUB), 3:41.46; 3. Erlon Silva/Isaquias Querioz dos Santos (BRA), 3:44.34; 4. Peter Kretschmer/Yul Oetze (GER), 3:45.17; 5. Victor Mihalachi/Catalin Chirila (ROU), 3:45.34.
C-4 500 m: 1. Russia (Shtyl, Petrov, Melantev, Pavlov), 1:34.69; 2. Germany, 1:35.83; 3. Belarus, 1:37.14; 4. Ukraine, 1:37.68; 5. Hungary, 1:39.17.
K-1 200 m (OG): 1. Liam Heath (GBR), 34.86; 2. Strahinja Stefanovic (SRB), 35.04; 3. Carlos Garrotte (ESP), 35.12; 4. Maxime Beaumont (FRA), 35.36; 5. Manfredi Rizza (ITA), 35.38.
K-1 500 m: 1. Tom Liebscher (GER), 1:35.04; 2. Mikita Borykau (BLR), 1:35.19; 3. Maxim Spesivtsev (RUS), 1:35.49; 4. Thomas Green (AUS), 1:35.85; 5. Bence Dombvari (HUN), 1:36.41.
K-1 1,000 m (OG): 1. Balint Kopasz (HUN), 3:36.07; 2. Josef Dostal (CZE), 3:37.31; 3. Fernando Pimenta (POR), 3:37.63; 4. Peter Gelle (SVK), 3:39.99; 5. Maxim Spesivtsev (RUS), 3:40.04.
K-1 5,000 m: 1. Aleh Yurenia (BLR), 19:54.07; 2. Max Hoff (GER), 19:57.56; 3. Pimenta (POR), 20:19.94; 4. Joakim Lindberg (SWE), 20:20.55; 5. Jost Zakrajsek (SLO), 20:21.46. Also: 26. Nathan Humbertson (USA), 22:30.99.
K-2 200 m: 1. Iurii Postrigai/Alexander Dyachenko (RUS), 33.05; 2. Piotr Mazur/Bartosz Grabowski (POL), 33.10; 3. Mark Balaska/Levente Apagyi (HUN), 33.30; 4. Kostja Stroinski/Timo Haseleu (GER), 33.32; 5. Juan Oriyes/Daniel Abad (ESP), 33.42.
K-2 500 m: 1. Stanislau Daineka/Dzmitry Natynchyk (BLR), 1:33;13. 2. Pelayo Roza/Pedro Vazquez (ESP), 1:33.48; 3. Marcus Gross/Martin Hiller (GER), 1:34.50; 4. Ervin Holpert/Marko Novakovic (SRB), 1:34.52; 5. Zsombor Noe/Gabor Bogar (HUN), 1:35.66.
K-2 1,000 m (OG): 1. Max Hoff/Jacob Schopf (GER), 3:20.53; 2. Francisco Cubelos/Inigo Pena (ESP), 3:21.79; 3. Cyrille Carre/Etienne Hubert (FRA), 3:22.96; 4. Josef Dostal/Radek Slouf (CZE), 3:23.19; 5. Jordan Wood/Riley Fitzsimmons (AUS), 3:23.22.
K-4 500 m (OG): 1. Germany (Liebscher, Rauhe, Rendschmidt, Lemke), 1:19.26; 2. Spain, 1:19.77; 3. Slovakia, 1:20.96; 4. Russia, 1:21.00; 5. Hungary, 1:21.10.
K-4 1,000 m: 1. Germany (Reuschenbach, Frank, Thordsen, Schultz), 2:48.79; 2. Russia, 2:49.78; 3. Slovakia, 2:50.44; 4. Hungary, 2:52.20; 5. Belarus, 2:52.32.
Women
C-1 200 m (OG): 1. Nevin Harrison (USA), 49.30; 2. Olesia Romasenko (RUS), 49.74; 3. Alena Nazdrova (BLR). 49.99; 4. Maria Mailliard (CHI), 50.09; 5. Katie Vincent (CAN), 50.12.
C-1 500 m: 1. Alena Nazdrova (BLR), 2:00.73; 2. Kseniia Kurach (RUS), 2:01.64; 3. Anastasiia Chetverikova (UKR), 2:03.83; 4. Yanan Ma (CHN), 2:07.68; 5. Giada Bragato (HUN), 2:07.86.
C-1 5,000 m: 1. Volha Klimava (BLR), 25:34.67; 2. Maria Mailliard (CHI), 25:56.41; 3. Yajue Zhang (CHN), 26:14.90; 4. Zsanett Lakatos (HUN), 26:30.41; 5. Maria Corbera (ESP), 26:30.82. Also: 14. Ann Armstrong (USA), 28:42.92.
C-2 200 m: 1. Wenjun Lin/Luqi Zhang (CHN), 44.69; 2. Kincso Takacs/Virag Balla (HUN), 45.16; 3. Dilnoza Rakhmatova/Nilufar Zorikova (UZB), 46.60; 4. Volha Klimava/Nadzeya Makarchanka (BLR), 46.81; 5. Daria Kharchenko/Kseniia Kurach (RUS), 47.77.
C-2 500 m (OG): 1. Mengya Sun/Shixiao Xu (CHN), 2:02.81; 2. Takacs/Balla (HUN), 2:04.49; 3. Klimava/Makarchanka (BLR), 2:07.74; 4. Lisa Jahn/Ophelia Preller (GER), 2:08.18; 5. Rakhmatova/Zorikova (UZB), 2:08.47.
K-1 200 m (OG) 1. Lisa Carrington (NZL), 39.39; 2. Marta Walczykiewicz (POL), 41.33; 3. tie, Emma Jorgensen (DEN) and Teresa Portela (ESP), 41.34; 5. Mariia Kichasova-Skoryk (UKR), 41.46.
K-1 500 m (OG): 1. Carrington (NZL), 1:55.76; 2. Volha Khudzenka (BLR), 1:57.39; 3. Danuta Kozak (HUN), 1:58.01; 4. Milica Starovic (SRB), 1:59.19; 5. Jorgensen (DEN), 1:59.69.
K-1 1,000 m: 1. Tamara Csipes (HUN), 4:07.90; 2. Justyna Iskrzycka (POL), 4:09.26; 3. Lizzie Broughton (GBR), 4:10.44; 4. Sarah Bruessler (GER), 4:10.58; 5. Mariana Petrusova (SVK), 4:12.44.
K-1 5,000 m: 1. Dora Bodonyi (HUN), 22:02.23; 2. Tabea Medert (GER), 22:03.85; 3. Maryna Litvinchuk (BLR), 22:04.08; 4. Bridgitte Hartley (RSA), 22:17.76; 5. Kristina Bedec (SRB), 22:22.38. Also: 18. Kaitlin McElroy (USA), 23:38.79.
K-2 200 m: 1. Maryna Litvinchuk/Volha Khudzenka (BLR), 36.21; 2. Spela Ponomarenko Janic/Anja Osterman (SLO), 36.72; 3. Blanka Kiss/Anna Lucz (HUN), 36.79; 4. Kristina Kovnir/Anastasiia Dolgova (RUS), 36.99; 5. Mariya Povkh/Liudmyla Kuklinovska (UKR), 37.11.
K-2 500 m (OG): 1. Maryna Livinchuk/Volha Khudzenka (BLR), 1:42.55; 2. Karolina Naja/Anna Pulawska (POL), 1:43.34; 3. Ponomarenko Janic/Osterman (SLO), 1:44.21; 4. Hermien Peters/Lize Broekx (BEL), 1:44.49; 5. Sarah Guyot/Manon Hostens (FRA), 1:44.90.
K-2/1,000 m: 1. Erika Medveczky/Reka Hagymasi (HUN), 3:34.23; 2. Tabea Medert/Sarah Bruessler (GER), 3:35.59; 3. Karina Alanis/Maricela Montemayor (MEX), 3:40.91; 4. Alena Kostromitina/Daria Lukina (RUS), 3:45.15; 5. Camila Morison/Barbara Pardo (ESP), 3:45.79.
K-4 500 m: 1. Hungary (Bodonyi, Medveczky, Csipes, Gazso), 1:32.91; 2. Belarus, 1:33.69; 3. Poland, 1:34.77; 4. New Zealand, 1:35.35; 5. France, 1:37.08.
