Men race as individuals, pairs and quads over 200 m, 500 m and 1000 m in both Canoe (Canadian) (C) and Kayak (K) events, giving a total of 18 gold medals. Women compete for only 9 gold medals as they race in kayak events only.
Host nation Hungary won twelve of the twenty-seven gold medals. Germany, who had topped the medal table in Zagreb in 2005, took four golds, as did Russia.
Hungary's medal haul included victories in all nine women's finals, Natasa Janics and Katalin Kovács winning six titles each.
In the men's races, Mexican Everardo Cristóbal shocked the top Europeans with victory in the C-1 1000 m final, giving Mexico their first-ever world championship gold medal. The K-1 1000 m, the Blue Riband event, was won by Markus Oscarsson of Sweden.
Germany's Ronald Rauhe won three gold medals to give him a career total of ten. HungarianGyörgy Kolonics, who holds the (men's) record for paddlers currently in competition, won the fourteenth gold medal of his career in the C-2 1000 m final. Russia's Maksim Opalev won his eleventh title. Other perennial favourites such as Andreas Dittmer, Eirik Verås Larsen and Adam van Koeverden however were unable to repeat previous successes. Germany won their first-ever C-4 title (1000 m). In the men's K-4 races, however, no German boats made the podium – the first time that had happened since 1977. Special mention should also go to the CzechPetr Procházka, the oldest man at the championships, who took gold in the C-4 200 m final.
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Szeged, Hungary
