Coxed Pairs, Men

As with the coxless pairs, the men’s coxed pairs at the 1980 Summer Olympics was not as heavily impacted by the American-led boycott as some of the other events. The East Germans had won the event at the previous two editions of the Games and three of the last four World Championships, and sent their defending Olympic champions, Harald Jährling, Friedrich-Wilhelm Ulrich, and Georg Spohr, to Moscow. If anyone could challenge them, it would likely be the Czechoslovakians, who had been runners-up at the last two editions of the Worlds and bronze medalists at the previous Olympics, and who sent their reigning World silver medalists, Josef Plamínek, Milan Škopek,and Oldřich Hejdušek to the 1980 Games.

East Germany dominated the opening round with a time over five seconds faster than its nearest competitor, the Soviet trio of Viktor Pereverzev, Gennady Kryuchkin, and 1976 Olympic champion in the coxed fours Aleksandr Lukyanov. Romania, whose crew contained two members from the 1972 Olympic bronze medalists, Petre Ceapura and Ladislau Lovrenschi, teamed with Gabriel Bularda, won its own easy heat: its time was slower than anyone in East Germany’s heat, yet still over eight seconds faster than the heat runner-up Bulgaria. The final was a more evenly matched affair, but the East Germans still won gold, with the Soviets coming in behind them for silver. The Yugoslavian squad, Duško Mrduljaš, Zlatko Celent, and Josip Reić, took bronze.