Sunday 28 August 2005 - Kovacs and Janics make history at 34th flatwater racing world championships in Croatia
The Hungarian duo of Katalin Kovacs and Natasa Janics paddled into the history books by becoming the first female athletes to win the 1000m, 500m and 200m titles in their class, at the 34th flatwater racing world championship at Lake Jarun on the outskirts of Zagreb. They dug deep to sprint away to win the fast 200m K2 final, and triggered frenzied celebrations amongst their vocal supporters when the completed the historic cleansweep of all the K2 women’s title contested at the event.
“We realised just how important this achievement was when we crossed the line. I am very pleased, for myself and for Katy. This is my first world championships in a K2, and to win everything is very special”, she added.
The men’s 500m final produced a thrilling photo-finish that had the crowd holdings breath as the judges needed several minutes before the medal were decided. Australian star Nathan Baggaley took control of the early part of the race with a typically powerful start. But with Eirik Veras Larsen drawn outside him in lane one, he had no idea where the major contenders were during the race.
“On the start line I looked around, and there were so many paddlers with individual strengths, and with Eirik (Veras Larsen) and Akos (Vereckei) in the outside lanes one and nine, there was no way I could cover all the basis, but I was lucky to have Lutz (Altepost) beside me in lane six. When Lutz (Altepost) came at me with his kick, I had done enough work to be able to go with him, and I’m over the moon with my third medal at this level”, he added. “The medal is so significant to me. Training with my broken finger was challenge, and I enjoy facing those challenges. In the end it has made me a better paddler”, Baggaley added.
The finish between Altepost and Adam van Koeverden was tantalisingly close, with the photo-finish giving the German a few precious centimetres over the Canadian, and the silver medal.
“I watched the screen, but couldn’t get any idea of whether I was second or third. My chief eventually shouted to me from the bridge that I had the silver, and I was very happy”, said Altepost, who won the gold with the German 1000m K4 crew on Saturday.
The drama intensified with the Men’s 500m C1 final, which was delayed by a false start from over-eager Ukranian Valentyn Demyanenko, before German ace Andreas Dittmer produced a carbon-copy domination that mirrored his victory in the 1000m C1 final on Saturday. Burly Russian Maxim Opalev shot through the fielding in the dying stages to claim his nation’s first medal of the champs behind Pole Pawel Baraszkiewicz. Nicole Reinhardt grabbed the women’s K1 title in a determined and perfectly executed race-plan, while rising Canadian star Karen Furneaux used a gymnastic boat-shoot to cross the line just ahead of fast finishing Hungarian Erzsabet Viski in third, and China’s Hongyan Zhong. The gold is a massive achievement for Reinhardt in her first attack on the world championship title, as the complexion of the women’s K1 field has changed dramatically since the Athens showcase a year ago.
“It’s my first year focusing on the K1, so if it seems like I have rattled a few cages, then that feels great!”, enthused Furneaux afterwards.
Olympic champions Ronald Rauhe and Tim Wieskotter retained their stranglehold on the men’s K2 competition, coasting home a second and a half clear of the Polish and Lithuanian challengers. Minutes later the German pair of Christain Gille and Tomasz Wylenzek wrapped up their second gold of the champs, following their 1000m C2 win with a clinical demolition of the 500m C2 final field. That double was repeated shortly afterwards at the indomitable duo of Hungarians Katalin Kovacs blitzed the women’s K2 final to grab their second title, after which they set their sights on the elusive triple, by winning the 200m K2 title, and complete their dominance of women’s K2 paddling. There was delight for France and Austria, as their crews paddled into the medals behind the Hungarians. For Austria the silver by Petra Schlitzer and Vitktoria Schwarz is their first flatwater medal at world championship level for many decades.
Belarus’ tradition for powerful crewboats came to fore with medals for their K4 and C4 boats, the K4 taking 500m gold in a thrilling photo-finish by just nine hundredths of a second, and their C4 losing the dice for gold to the Romanian crew by a slim margin. Germany medal haul was further boosted by their women’s K4 grinding out a solid victory over the Polish and Hungarian women.
In the afternoon’s 200m finals, a number of paddlers achieved the unique feats of winning medals just a matter of minutes apart. Russia’s burly C1 star Maxim Opalev picked up the bronze in his 200m C1 final, and then half an hour later anchored the Russian C4 to the gold medal. Similarly Spain’s Teresa Portela followed her gold medal in the women’s 200m k1 final, with a bronze in her nations K4. The 200m Men’s K2 final brought a rare gold medal for Serbia and Montenegro, as Dragan Zoric and Ognjen Filipovic muscled their way across the line ahead of the crews from Poland and Lithuania.

Saturday 27 August 2005 - New Olympic qualification criteria recommended by ICF
The Executive of the International Canoe Federation will recommend to the International Olympic Committee several revisions to the Olympic qualification system for the canoeing and kayaking events at the Beijing Olympic Games. It was agreed at the extraordinary meeting of the ICF Executive that in the first qualifying event for the 2008 Games, at the Duisburg World Championships in 2007, that the first six boats in each of the 12 Olympic disciplines will qualify directly for the 2008 Games. The second qualifying competition will be the regional continental regattas that will take place in the first few months of 2008, where each continent will be allocated a specific quota of places to fill. The ICF will guarantee at least one place to each of the continental qualifying competitions. The ICF Executive has committed to reducing the number of wildcard entries to a maximum of eight, and a minimum of five.
We are committed to upholding the ideals of the Olympic Charter to ensure that the top athletes take part in the Olympic Games, and that there is universality by ensuring the representivity of as many nations as possible, said ICF President Ulrich Feldhoff. The Federation currents enjoys an allocations of 350 athletes that may be entered into the canoeing and kayaking events at the Olympic Games, of which 275 are allocated to the flatwater programme, and 75 to slalom racing. Feldhoff also confirmed that the ICF will be acting firmly against the athletes that tested positive for a cannabis recently. Feldhoff stressed that these cases did not involve any of the athletes taking part at the World Championships, but said the issue will be dealt with firmly.
We should differentiate the Cannabis cases, but that does not mean we will play them down. I do not want this element to enter our sport at any level. We will deal firmly with these cases, he added.

Friday 26 August 2005 - Cool, overcast conditions helped to produce fast time on the second day of the 34 th World Flatwater Championships at Lake Jarun on Friday.
The duel between the world's top men K1 paddlers has been the talking point of the regatta thus far, with the coming weekend producing the long awaited showdown between the stars Ben Fouhy from New Zealand , Canada's Olympic 500m gold medallist Adam van Koeverden, Australian Nathan Baggaley, and Olympic 1000m champ Eirik Veraas Larsen of Norway. None of them was under any pressure to qualify for Saturday's 1000m A final, with Larsen topping the list of fastest times in an easy win in the fourth semi-final.
With a resurgent Ian Wynne of Great Britain in the wings, along with German Lutz Altepost and Hungarian Zoltan Benko, both the 1000m clash on Saturday and the 500m showdown the following day look to be thrillers.
The Men's C1 tussle is proving to be just as fascinating. Prague-based veteran Martin Doktor is eager to prove he still has what it takes as a 31-year-old to win a world championship gold. At the last worlds in Gainesville in 2003 he medalled in both the 500m and 1000m finals. However the men that hogged the podium in Athens are all here and in excellent form, with Spain David Cal, German Andreas Dittmer , Hungary's Attila Vadja and the big Russian Maxim Opalev all dominating the first two rounds of racing. Australia's Katrin Bochert raced through her semi-final to join the 1000m A final line-up, with fast finishing Chinese paddler Qun Wang joining her.
In the men's K2 semi-finals, the Kiwi crew of Ben Fouhy and Steven Ferguson raced into the 1000m final, giving Fouhy a shot at the elusive 1000m double, as he raced into the K1 final over the same distance just an hour earlier.
The Hungarian Men's K4 had a disastrous semi-final, finishing last well off the pace, and missing out a place in the final much to the disappointment of the vocal fans.
The women's classes have produced some exhilarating racing, as youngsters jostle to fill the gaps left by established stars like Carolin Brunet, who is recovering from hip surgery, and Italy's Josefa Idem. That has left the Hungarian duo of Natasa Janics and Katalin Kovaks very much in the limelight.
The Chinese contingent that produced the shock gold medal in the Men's 500m final on the final day of the Athens flatwater competition is also not in Zagreb , as they have elected to race their national China Games, which coincide with the world championships this weekend.
Looking ahead to the 1000m men's K1 final on Saturday, Australian star Nathan Baggaley said there was very little between what he called basically the same four guys.
The Gold Coast based double Olympic medallist is carrying an injured finger, broken during a freak big swell surfing accident, that threatened to derail his post-Olympic year plans.
It forced me to look at things differently, says Baggaley. I have done a lot of things, like the Molokai Challenge, that I haven't done in the past, and yet my form is ahead of my expectations, and I feel rejuvenated, which makes you think.
Baggaley is looking for his third world title in a row, and says he wants to work on delivering better 1000m results, and has been training at altitude in Switzerland , and including some cross country training. Baggaley is lured by the prospect of the elusive world championship double, winning the 1000m gold, and then the 500m title the following day. Yes, that is my goal, he says firmly. It has been done before. If it all comes together this weekend, I'd like to prove that I am a better 1000m paddler than the past results suggest.
The man who snatched the 1000m gold in style in Athens , Canadian Adam van Koeverden is philosophical about the finals. The year after the Olympics everyone ends to branch out a little. I have been concentrating on my studies, which tends to takes it out of you. It is also such a long way for us to travel to compete, and I have had just two international competitions this year,says Van Koeverden. Yet, when we do race, it is just as close as it is in an Olympic year. Of the four that we are talking about, a lot of us hook up to train together during the year, because it is so tough to train for such long periods between competition, and it's good to get together and push each other. He also pointed out that the sport benefits from great camaraderie and friendship between the top paddlers. I am friends with virtually everyone I race against, which I really appreciate, he says. That friendship will have to be shelved on the weekend, as the four, and five other equally talented athletes, square up for the two eagerly awaited finals.
The finals of the 1000m events take place on Saturday morning, with the 500m and 200m final on Sunday.

25th august – The record entry for the flatwater racing world championships ensured that there was a crammed programme of high-quality racing on the first day of the 34th edition of the global showcase, at the Jarun Lake on the outskirts of Zagreb. The 717 athletes from 78 nations enjoyed near perfect racing conditions, as the weather that has devastated central Europe for the past week rtreated to leave hot and sunny conditions for most of the days racing.
All of the established stars raced safely through the day of heats over 1000m and 500m, to book their berths in the semi-finals on Friday, with no upsets dogging the opening day of the event. Instead it was the turn of emerging stars from nations such as Morocco, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam to bask in the limelight as they raced into the next round of their events.
The crowd that packed into the stands enjoyed seeing some robust racing from some of the sports superstars, many of the Olympic medallists from Athens.
K1 stars Ben Fouhey of New Zealand, Olympic gold medallist Adam van Koeverden, Australian double Olympic medallist Nathan Baggaley and Norway’s Eirik Veras Larsen opened their campaigns with solid 1000m heat wins. Veteran Czech Republic campaigner Martin Doktor proved he has lost none of his hunger as he posted the fastest 1000m C1 time of the day, while the German men’s and women’s K2 crew-boats impressed on the day. Also showing excellent early form were the Hungarian crews of Roland Kokeny and Gabor Kucsera, and their female counterparts Katalin Kovacs and Natasa Janics, to the delight of their enthusiastic supporters. The German crew of Christian Gille and Tomasz Wylenzek sounded a strong warning that they plan to continue their reign as the world’s best C2 crew.
The much anticipated showdown in the men’s K4 competition looks set to be a clash of the traditional titans from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, Germany and Belarus.
The competition moves into semi-final stages tomorrow in the1000m and 500m races, with the finals taking place on Saturday morning.

24th august - The 34th flatwater racing world championships get under way at Jarun Lake on the outskirts of Zagreb on Thursday, with a record entry of 717 athletes from 78 nations taking part.
The last flatwater world championships, held at Lake Lanier in Gainesville in the USA in 2003, attracted paddlers from 65 countries. Almost all of the athletes that won Olympic title have entered the regatta, setting up a rematch of many of the classic encounters that entertained the Olympic Games’ global audience.
Multiple Olympic Medallist Birgit Fischer is back, anchoring the favourite German Women’s K4. Fischer holds the record for Olympic medals won by a female paddler in successive Olympiads. Canadian Olympic Men’s K1 Medallist Adam van Koeverden will be on of the first athletes in action, in his 1000m heat shortly after 9am on Thursday.
The purpose built regatta course on the outskirts of Zagreb has not been affected by the flooding that has ravaged central Europe this week. The Sava river which passes just a few hundred metres from the course is still in spate and many low-lying region are under water after the torrential rains.
The racing begins on Thursday, with the 1000m and 500m heats, which will enter the semi-final stage on Friday. All the 1000m finals will take place on Saturday morning, followed by he heats and semi-finals for the 200m events.
The prestigious 500m finals take place on Sunday morning, followed by the 200m finals.

Results will be available live on the regatta website at: www.kajak.hr/wc2005/startlists

23rd august – Today, two days before the beginning of the 34th ICF Flatwater Racing World Championship we have organized the last press conference. The reason was to present to the Croatian media the last and updated information about the competition.
President of the Organizing Committee, Marko Ćurković opened the press conference explaining the great meaning that this competition has for Croatia and especially for our capital city, Zagreb.
- This is the biggest World Championship so far. We have 771 competitors from 78 countries all over the world. It was a demanding task for us to organize the WC, but we have done it, and I am proud to say that everything is ready and the competition can begin on Thursday - said Mr. Ćurković.
Secretary General of the Organizing Committee, Branko Lovrić confirmed that everything is ready and he mentioned Croatian competitors that were, off course, most interesting to our media. Janić brothers are the biggest Croatian favorites. For Stjepan Janić this is the first big competition after he won the bronze medal in K1-500 on the last European championship. His brother Mićo is hoping that he and his brother can repeat the big success when they have won gold medal on the last Mediterranean Games in Almeria.
- For us, the big success would be just to enter the finals. But you never know, maybe we’ll be lucky and win a medal. We’ll have the support of our public, so anything can happen. – said Mićo.
So, dear kayak and canoe friends, everything is ready for the 34th ICF Flatwater Racing World Championship. Hope to see you in Zagreb!!!

3rd August 2005, Zagreb – Croatian Canoe Federation (CCF) today held Press Conference with three topics: Reaching the 3rd place and wining the bronze medal on the European Canoe Senior Championships by Stjepan Janić in K1-500 meters which took place in Poznan, Poland; plans of the Croatian canoeists at the approaching World Canoe Junior Championships taking place in Szegedin, Hungary from 3rd to 7th August 2005; hosting and organization of the 34th ICF Flatwater Racing World Championships in Zagreb from 25th to 28th August 2005.

CCF President, Mr. Marko Ćurković has, among others, pointed out that achieved results in Poznan, represent continued effort of the Croatian canoeists, expressing hope that they will continue to achieve high-level results at future competitions.CCF National Team Leader, Mr. Mladen Marinović, related to the achieved success and future plans expressed his satisfaction concerning the seriousness and commitment of the Croatian canoeists. Mr. Marinović also expressed his view that there are plenty ore potentials among the Croatian Canoe Juniors.

With regard to the 34th ICF Flatwater Racing World Championships in Zagreb, Mr. Ćurković, talking in the capacity of the Organizing Committee President mentioned that Organizing Committee is undertaking all the steps to ensure good organizing and competing conditions or the Championships. He also expressed his hope that the Organizing Committee will soon have the opportunity to further elaborate the Championships project to the Mayor of the City of Zagreb, Mr. Milan Bandić.