2007 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships
The 36th Canoe Sprint World Championships were held until August 12, 2007 in Duisburg of 8. Competition venue was the race course Duisburg in Duisburg Sports Park. The event was organized by the International Canoe Federation, organizers of the German Canoe Association, which also has its headquarters in Duisburg.
With a total of 1,400 athletes from 90 countries, the event was the largest Canoe World Championships of all times. On four days of competition medals were awarded in 27 disciplines of canoe racing: One kayak ( K1), double kayak (K2) and four kayak ( K4) of women and men as well as one - canoe (C1), two - Canadians (C2 ) and four - Canadians (C4 ) of the men, each with 200, 500 and 1000 meters.
The World Championships were also a qualifier race for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The events showed a clear dominance of German and Hungarian teams, who both won nine of 27 decisions - no other country won more than one title. The German Canoe Association was able to use his home advantage and were in the medals table at the end with 9/6/3 (G / S / B) ahead of Hungary ( 9/3/6 ) and Belarus ( 1/2/1 ).
The race track was at the final days completely sold out. The high for the number of total Canoeing 17,400 spectators prepared the German canoeists a real home game atmosphere.
Shortly after the start of the World Championships of the International Canoe Federation concluded from the team of Iran from the event. The reason given was that the team had not paid despite repeated requests hotel bills and filing fees in the amount of 18,000 euros.
For the first time there was a cultural program as part of the Canoe World Championships. Right next to the race course offered the Canoe World Championships - Plaza, a varied program with numerous musical acts, concerts of well-known German artists such as Jan Delay, Joy Dena Lane, MIA. and silver moon and an open- air concert of the Duisburg Philharmonic. A children's program and numerous catering pavilions completed the daily program, which according to the organizers had more than 100,000 visitors.