Evgeny Arkhipov: “Three gold medals and third place at the World Championships is a certain stability”

Evgeny Arkhipov: “Three gold medals and third place at the World Championships is a certain stability”

The Russian national Kayak-Canoe team took the third team place at the World Championships, which ended on Sunday in the Portuguese town of Montemor-o-Velho. By the number of gold medals (3) the Russians lost only to the Germans (7) and Hungarians (6), and by the total number of awards we are the second (11) after Germany (13).

Our canoeists performed perfectly. They added nine medals (2-3-4) to the medal haul. Ivan Shtyl, Pavel Petrov, Victor Melantyev, Mikhail Pavlov (C-4, 500 m) became world champions, as well as the debutante of the World Championships 21-year-old Ksenia Kurach (C-1, 500 m).

Silver medals were won by Ivan Shtyl (C-1, 200 m), Victor Melantyev/ Vladislav Chebotar (C-2, 500 m) and Olesya Romasenko (C-1, 200 m).

Kirill Shamshurin (C-1, 5,000 m), Alexander Kovalenko/Ivan Shtyl (C-2, 200 m), Kirill Shamshurin/ Ilya Pervukhin (C-2, 1000 m), Ksenia Kurach/Olesya Nikiforova (C-2, 200 m) became bronze medalists.

Two medals, gold and bronze, were taken by Russian kayakers. We cannot but mention  23-year-old Artem Kuzakhmetov, who became the winner at a distance of 500 meters in pair with Vladislav Blintsovat at his first World Championships. Third place, as well as at the 2017 World Championships, was taken by Eugeniy Lukantsov in the 200 meters single.

However, at the Olympic distances, which there are only 12 in Kayak-Canoe (six men’s and six women’s), our success looks more modest: one silver (Romasenko) and two bronze medals (Shamshurin/Pervukhin, Lukantsov).

The winners of the 2018 World Championships in the Olympic standings, let’s call it so, are: Germany (4-1-1), Hungary (3-1-1), Canada (2-0-0).

However, compared to the last year’s World Championships in Račice (Czech Republic) Russian national team won almost twice as many medals: 11 (3-3-5) vs. 6 (2-2-2).

– Three gold medals and the third place is a certain stability, which I am pleased with,  said Evgeny Arkhipov, President of the Russian Canoe Federation. – The canoeists gave a confident performance. At the same time, we can complain about Ivan Shtyl’s second place in singles and third place in the double event (with Alexander Kovalenko). Ivan is a multiple world and European champion, accustomed us to his victories, so that the canoists’ result could have been even better. But this sport. Women were also good in canoeing. The leaders of the team Olesya Romasenko, who won the silver medal, and Ksenia Kurach, who became the champion are worthy of praise. The rest athletes need to work.